


The Academy for Gifted Individuals

by orphan_account



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe-Super Powers, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Bullying, Emotional Manipulation, Holocaust references, Homophobia, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Minor Character Death, Multi, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, kind of like x-men but different, mentions of homocide, referenced animal death, theres a lot of focus on death and dying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-14 06:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 33
Words: 41,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5732602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ABANDONED WORK. DON'T BOTHER READING.<br/>The Academy for Gifted Individuals is a school built by the government with the intentions of allow people with unique and powerful abilities to learn how to control their powers. Dan Howell, one of the most powerful people to ever attend the academy to date, is an antisocial loner who prefers to spend all the time that he can on his own. Phil Lester, a new student at the academy, is assigned to be this reclusive boy’s roommate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Roomate

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry to everyone who was hoping for more updates on this story, but I've decided to abandon it. After taking such a long break from writing this, all I can see is how terrible it is. The story is overdone and uninteresting, the characters are flat and unrelatable, the entire idea is so poorly executed, and overall it just sucks. I can't bring myself to finish it. I apologize to anyone who for some reason liked this and wanted more. I'm not going to delete it since I know people tend to hate that, so I'm just going to orphan it instead. Thanks everyone who left kind words on this. You're all great.

“What do you mean I’m getting a roommate?” Dan screamed at the suited man standing in front of him.

“I mean exactly that,” The man replied, not at all fazed by the younger man’s loud and angry tone.

“I’m a level five,” Dan stated simply, “I’m not allowed to have a roommate.”

At The Academy for Gifted Individuals, every student is given a level ranking based on how dangerous their individual abilities make them. Level ones aren’t much more dangerous than an average person, and usually they don’t spend much longer than a few months at the academy learning how to control their abilities before being set back into the “real world” again.

Level two and three individuals typically have stronger and more intense powers. Generally, it doesn’t take them more than a year or two to learn how to control their abilities, and after a few tests to make sure that they aren’t going to potentially harm normal people, they get sent back to normal society. Some level threes have to check in with the academy every two years to make sure that they still aren’t a threat to the general public, but that’s only in extreme cases.

Level fours are individuals who have such intense and hard to control powers that more often than not they end up damaging people or property before being sent to The Academy. They are only allowed to live with either other level fours or exceptionally powerful level threes for safety reasons. Only about half of level four individuals are ever cleared as safe enough to return to normal society; the other half typically opt to live at The Academy permanently or work for special teams in the government.

Level Fives are threats to national or global security. Nearly all of them have been involved in serious crimes such as robbery, assault, or murder either because they didn’t know how to control their abilities or on occasion because they knew average people wouldn’t be able to stop them. They aren’t allowed roommates for safety reasons and they rarely have lessons with lower level individuals for the same reasons. Classes to learn to control their abilities are always one on one with their instructors instead of in groups like many of the lower level classes. Minus one or two exceptions, Level Fives don’t return to normal society and either work special government jobs or live at the school forever.

“I am aware of this Mr. Howell,” the suited man said, “but currently there are no more dorms at The Academy. Until we can get the funding and supplies to build a new wing, we are having to pair up the least violent Level Fives and have them live together.”

“Least violent?” Dan scoffed, “Check my file; I have six deaths under my name.”

“Those deaths are labeled as accidental, and you haven’t had any behavioral problems since arriving here. You can’t argue here Daniel. Your new roommate will be arriving later tonight, so I suggest you do whatever you need to do before then.”

With that, the man in the suit left, and Dan groaned in frustration as he fell back onto his sofa. Dan has never really been much of a people person to begin with, and he’s had minimal contact with other people since he joined The Academy nine years ago. He didn’t want to have to deal with a person, and he certainly did not want to be so close to one all the time. It’s exhausting enough having to keep his guard up at all times when he has classes; having to on guard even when he’s in his own home is going to be so much worse.

The clock that’s constantly projected onto the wall above his television reads 19:26 in large red numbers. New students are usually shown to their rooms around 8:30 so that the faculty and staff all have time to eat dinner, so Dan has roughly an hour to get his home ready to be shared with a slightly saner than usual fellow menace to society.

“I fucking hate this!” he yelled loudly to the room around him.

There was no response in the otherwise uninhabited space, so the brown eyed boy huffed and went to his soon to be shared bedroom, moving the pile of laundry that he was always too lazy to put away off of the spare second bed and onto the floor in front of his closet.

~*~*~*~*~

The front door opened without anyone having the courtesy to knock and another vaguely threatening looking man in a suit walked in with a tall, black haired and blue eyed boy following behind with a suitcase.

“This will be your dorm until the new wing is finished,” the man said, “and this is your roommate,” he said pointing to Dan who was playing Mario Kart.

“Thank you,” the blue eyed man said politely to his advisor.

“You’re welcome. Enjoy your night; you have a full day of classes starting tomorrow.”

The man in the suit left, and Dan’s new roommate awkwardly shuffled forward and stood beside the couch.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” Dan replied, showing no interest in anything but his race.

“I’m Phil,” his roommate said when it was clear that Dan wasn’t going to start the introductions.

“So you are.”

Phil realized that the other boy wasn’t going to be much for conversation at the moment, so he skipped over the pleasantries.

“Where’s the bedroom?” he asked.

“End of the hall. Don’t touch any of my stuff,” Dan replied.

Phil nodded and quickly made his way to the bedroom sensing how much his presence wasn’t wanted at the moment. When Dan heard the door close, he paused the game and pulled out his laptop. He clicked on The Academy’s icon and pulled up the student records section.

“Let’s see what kind of freak we’re dealing with,” Dan whispered to himself.

Since he’s been living at the academy for most of his life and with his ability he’ll never be allowed back with the general public, Dan’s teacher Tyler gave Dan access to The Academy’s database so he could get used to the system for when he eventually gets a job with them. Although he does occasionally fiddle around with all of the programing enough to seem like he’s learning, he mostly just uses his security clearance to learn all of the dirty secrets about the new kids that come in.

Dan found Phil’s file and clicked on the general overview. All of the basic boring information popped up; his name is Philip Michael Lester. He’s 6’2’’ black hair and blue eyes. He’s Caucasian, his threat level is 5, and his criminal record is surprisingly empty. His ability, which normally is one of the first things listed in a person’s file, wasn’t showing up. Confused, Dan clicked to open the whole file, and a screen popped up informing him that he would need Level 7 security clearance to view this fine.

“What the fuck are you?” Dan said to his screen.

Dan currently had Level 5 security clearance, which is what the majority of the teachers have. Very rarely is a person’s ability kept confidential from most of the teachers. For the past four years the only person with a dangerous enough ability to need that level of security was Dan, and his file only needed level 6 security clearance for viewing. How could someone without a criminal record have a more dangerous power than Dan? Better yet, how could anyone have a more dangerous power than Dan at all?

He heard the door to his- now their- room opening, so he hastily shut his laptop and restarted his game of Mario Kart. Phil awkwardly walked down the hall to the living room, nervously touching his hair as he did so.

“Could you tell me where the bathroom is?” he asked.

“First door on the right,” Dan said flatly, nodding in that direction.

“Thank you,” Phil said before scurrying back down the hall.

Dan heard a bit of shuffling and, after a few minutes, he heard the shower start. Setting down his game controller again, he pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed one of the only numbers he had saved in it.

“Sup Danny boy,” Tyler said cheerily from the other line.

“Please stop calling me that,” Dan grumbled in response.

“Never gonna happen,” Tyler said, “So why’re you calling me so late?”

“First off, it’s barely nine o’clock; this isn’t even close to late. Second, I need you to tell me about my new roommate.”

“You really need to find some hobbies outside of stalking every new student we get,” Tyler joked, “And you have your own laptop. Just pull up his file yourself.”

“I need Level 7 clearance to view his ability.”

“Well that sucks for you now doesn’t it?”

“Tyler!” Dan whined.

“Sorry Dan; I can’t give you classified information. It’s against the rules. You’re lucky I managed to get you Level 5 clearance in the first place, since you almost never use it for its actual purpose.”

“Ugh,” Dan groaned.

“Don’t get whiny,” Tyler said, “And besides, you graduate this year anyways. With how things are going you’ll be up on my level in two years easy.”

“Thanks Ty,” Dan said, rolling his eyes, “You’re so much help.”

“Anytime! See you tomorrow,” Tyler said before hanging up.

Dan threw his phone onto the coffee table and spread out on the couch, his freakishly long legs hanging over the end. The idea of living with someone was bad enough, but living with someone who was more dangerous than himself was just an accident waiting to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, new story! I'm going to try to actually have a schedule with this one and upload every 2 weeks. Comment if you'd like. I love hearing what everyone thinks. Have a nice day :)


	2. First Day

Dan went to bed at 3:30 a.m. that night, like he usually does, and was awoken not even three hours later to the angrily shrill sounds of his phone ringing. He groaned loudly and slapped at the device. When it didn’t stop making the annoying sound, he huffed and picked it up to see Tyler’s cheery contact photo staring at him.

“What the fuck do you want?” Dan said angrily when he answered the phone call.

“Well good morning to you too, sunshine,” Tyler replied.

“Ty, I just went to bed like two hours ago. What do you want so early?”

“Well, your roommate’s supervisor met up with me last night and we both think that it would be a good idea for you to show him around. You know, since it’s his first day and all.”

“No.”

“Let me rephrase that. Get your ass out of bed right now and show the guy the way around. And don’t be more of a dick than you usually are.”

Dan grumbled annoyed into the phone and ended the call. His plan was to engage in as little interaction as he could with his mysterious roommate, but apparently that wouldn’t be possible. The young boy groggily got out of bed and, after noticing that Phil wasn’t in their newly shared bedroom for some reason, quickly got dressed in his usual outfit: a black hoodie over a black tee with black skinny jeans and black leather gloves.

He found his roommate in their tiny kitchen eating some slightly burnt toast and drinking coffee.

“Good morning,” He said kindly when he saw Dan enter the room.

Dan waved his hand in acknowledgement and made his way straight to the coffee maker. He quickly drank the rest of the rather hot coffee they had whilst staring angrily off into space. Dan was never a morning person, so until the caffeine kicked in he was going to be far crankier than usual.

“Show me your schedule,” he said when he’d finished off his the last of the coffee.

“What?” Phil said, thrown off by the sudden statement.

“Our supervisors want me to show you around today. Show me your schedule,” he said, attempting but failing to put a slight tone of friendliness into the command.

Phil pulled a crookedly folded sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Dan. He quickly skimmed over the other man’s schedule before smirking.

“You’re in college?” Dan said with a condescending tone.

“Yeah,” Phil replied, “They said I could get my degree here if I didn’t want to drop out.”

Dan folded up the paper and tossed it back to Phil. “There’s no point in getting a degree. Level fives never leave The Academy; you’re stuck here for the rest of your life. The only reason I’m even going to finish high school is because I have to be 18 to drop out and I’ll graduate a month before that.”

“Are you always this cheery?” Phil said sarcastically.

“If by cheery you mean a massive dick, then yes. But don’t worry, you only have to deal with it until they build you a new room. Now grab whatever you need; we’re leaving.”

Phil got up and went to grab his bag from their room, his expression screaming _I can’t believe I’m stuck with this guy for months._ Dan smirked, slightly proud of himself for getting under the other guy’s skin a bit.

They left and began making their way through the near maze of The Academy’s layout. When the academy was first built it was only the size of an average high school because people with abilities were so rare at the time and usually ended up in prison. As the stigma on gifted people began to lessen in the nation the academy got more and more students, and subsequencely had to build on to build on to the school. With each new floor and wing added, the set up became more twisted and confusing.

Dan, having spent most of his life here, knew all of the endless twists and turns like the back of his hand. But for many new students it could be very difficult to navigate through such a large place. The pair ended up having to walk twenty minutes and climb three sets of stair in order to get to Phil’s first classroom for the day.

“Do they not have elevators here?” Phil asked, slightly out of breath from the long walk.

“Not for the upper academic classes,” Dan replied, “Not many people go to this area, so they decided it wasn’t worth putting them in. They’re mainly around the power training rooms, dorms, and cafeterias.”

“That’s unfair.” Phil commented, half pouting.

“You get used to it. When you’re finished here I’ll take you to your next class. Don’t wander off; if you get lost then my supervisor will have my head.”

“Noted. And thank you for showing me around.” Phil added

Instead of saying something polite in return, Dan simply turned and walked away. He turned a couple of corners and after a few minutes he arrived at his training room. Most of the training rooms are used by multiple people every day, but Dan’s ability had been deemed dangerous enough to warrant having an entire training room that only himself and his instructor were allowed in. Because it was so secluded, Tyler and Dan were known to spend their free time there when they didn’t want to travel all the way back to their rooms.

“Blue hair today.” Dan said when he saw that Tyler was already sitting at his desk on the far corner of the room.

“Hi Danny boy,” Tyler said, turning to face his student, “I can’t decide if I want to go with pastel blue or silver blue. Which do you prefer?’

Tyler began shifting his hair between the two colors for Dan to see.

“Pastel,” Dan decided, “It works better with those eyes.”

Tyler changed his hair to the shade Dan chose and then examined it in the mirror. Tyler was a level five shape shifter and, despite being so talented that he could look like any human on the planet, he generally only used his ability to change his hair color every day. When he seemed satisfied with himself he set the mirror back down on the desk and turned to his young friend.

“So how are things going with your new roommate then?” he asked, pushing a desk chair over for Dan to sit in.

“As well as you’d expect,” Dan answered, taking a seat.

“So you’re being a giant ass then?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “You can’t keep making everyone you meet hate you, you know. It’s not healthy. And you’ll never get a relationship that way either.”

“I can’t have a relationship anyways, and I don’t need other people in my life. I’ve got you; other friends would be useless.”

“Dan,” Tyler started in what Dan had started calling his _overprotective mom voice_ over the years, “You’re going to be able to control your abilities one day, and having a normal relationship with someone is going to be possible. You need to start letting people into your life.”

“I don’t need friends, Tyler. And I don’t want them either. People are too much work.”

Tyler sighed but didn’t press further. They had been having this discussion more and more often lately, but Dan was still set on keeping up his _I don’t need people_ thing.

Dan couldn’t make friends when he was younger because he was too dangerous to be around others his age at the time, so the only person he really had a chance to make any sort of connection with was Tyler. As he got older, he started to accept that his nature would keep him from ever getting close to people, and his lack of relations began to become part of his personal identity. Not having anyone was the foundation that young Dan built himself on, and now that he’s older taking that away would mean having to change everything he’s made himself to be.

“Well since you’re here,” Tyler proposed, “Do you want to go ahead and do your training for today?”

“But it’s so early,” Dan whined.

“If you get it out of the way now then you can take a nap this afternoon and stay on your almost concerning vampiric sleeping schedule.”

Dan rolled his eyes but smiled at Tyler’s teasing comment. “Go get the stuff old man.”

“I’m only twenty-six,” Tyler said, walking over to the plant cupboard in the back of the large room, “and have you never heard of respecting your elders?”

“I never respect anyone,” Dan joked back.

“Because you’re a lil shit,” Tyler said, setting a small potted flower down on the desk. “Come on, gloves off already.”

Dan carefully took the leather gloves off of his hands and set them off to the side. Dan hated training, always had, but he learned over the years that it was better to just do it and get It over with than to make a fuss about it. He would end up doing daily training whether it was voluntary or not, and it was easier on everyone to just comply.

He carefully placed one finger against the flower and put all of his focus into not draining it. But like always, despite his efforts, the greens and yellows of the plant quickly faded into browns and blacks as it wilted into a withered corpse in the pot.

“That was good, Dan,” Tyler said, patting the boy’s clothed shoulder, “It lasted longer that time. You’re getting better.”

Tyler walked back to the cupboard to get the next plant to practice on.

“I’m sorry,” Dan whispered quietly to the dead plant when he thought Tyler was out of earshot.

Tyler heard him, but like every time he hears the young boy apologize to the victims of all of his failed attempts to control his ability, he pretends that he doesn’t. Dan liked to seem detached and uncaring because it was easier that way and it hurts less, so Tyler lets him keep up his appearances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up in two weeks! (For some reason having a set upload schedule is helping me write more with less pressure induced writer's block.) I hope you liked the chapter. Leave a comment if you want to, they always make my day, and have a great day!


	3. the gardens

Dan was waiting for Phil when he finished his first class. Despite having just sat through a three-hour lecture, Phil had an aura about him that seemed cheery and full of life when he entered the hallway. Dan couldn’t help but roll his eyes at it.

“Come on, your next class is downstairs,” he said as soon as Phil noticed him, then started walking without checking to see if the older man was following him.

Phil skipped a bit to catch up and quietly walked beside him. An air of awkward silence fell between the pair. Dan is always in a bad mood for a bit after his finishes a training session, and Phil seemed to pick up on the other boy’s more sour than usual mood.

“It’s that one” Dan said as he stopped abruptly, pointing to a large lead door that stuck out like a sore thumb against the cream beige of The Academy’s walls and floors.

“Are you sure?” Phil asked, looking worriedly at the ominous looking door.

“Positive,” Dan replied, “They don’t want anyone getting hurt, so people like us have really strong training rooms. If something goes wrong while you’re learning, all the damage will be contained to just one room.”

“How often do things go wrong?” Phil asked, concerned.

“More often than you’d think, especially with new students.”

Not wanting to deal with any more possible questions that Phil could throw at him, Dan elected to walk off.

Dan usually didn’t wake up before lunch, and he had always had his classes scheduled for the afternoon, so he rarely had a chance to roam around the grounds so early during the day when everyone else was awake. Unsurprisingly, Dan has always been a bit of a people watcher, so to pass the time before lunch, he decided to go sit in the gardens where most of the students and faculty like to spend their free time.

The gardens were originally built for students with abilities related to plants, but over time the students started using it as a nice peaceful place to enjoy their downtime. It had flowers of seemingly every color, trees, bushes, small ponds, and other beautiful looking plants that were a nice contrast to the sterile, monotone colors of the school that were constantly surrounding them otherwise.

Dan had his own special spot in the back corner of the gardens away from view of everyone else. He didn’t use it often since he preferred to lock himself away in his room, but he was there often enough that over the years a small patch of grass where he usually sat had turned permanently brown. There was a time when someone tried to fix it by regrowing the grass with whatever ability they had, but eventually they must have realized that their efforts were useless and given up.

After sitting down in his secluded spot, the first person that Dan noticed was Louise. Louise was twenty, and she had joined The Academy a little over a year ago. She was a level three with the ability to change the color of her hair and eyes. When she first joined the school she had tried to make friends with Dan many times before realizing that her efforts were mostly useless. She still invites the boy to watch movies or play video games in her dorm from time to time in hopes of possibly breaking through the icy wall he has built up between himself and everyone else.

At the moment Louise is sitting in a patch of flowers, altering her hair and eyes to match each individual flower she touches. Dan has seen her do that on more than one occasion, and he never really understood why. She always looks very peaceful when she’s surrounded by flowers.

A little further away than Louise, Dan can see Cat sitting under a tree reading a book. Cat is a level five, but she was only a level three originally when she came here four years ago. She can convince people to do things with just her voice, and from what Dan had seen from the few classes he’s had with her, she’s pretty powerful.

Cat knew she would be stuck at the academy for the rest of her life, but unlike Dan she never seemed very bothered by that fact. She always seems very energetic and social with everyone. Dan doesn’t understand how she can be like that when everyone here is going to be gone in a few years and she’s never going to get to see them again, but he doesn’t get a lot of things about other people.

The small breeze that was flowing through everywhere started to pick up a bit, and Cat started fighting to keep her hair out of her eyes while she tried to read. Louise seemed to notice the trouble that the other girl was having trouble and walked over to give her a hair clip. Cat seemed a bit surprised, probably because she didn’t notice anyone else was outside, and gladly pinned her hair back.

Instead of going back to where she was before, Louise walked over to where Dan was sitting. He was surprised that she noticed him tucked away in his private little corner, but Louise surprised him a lot.

“Can I sit here?” she asked, pointing to the grass next to him.

He shrugged, and she plopped down beside him.

“You’re up early,” She commented, running her hands through the grass and making her eyes match the different hues.

He didn’t reply, not wanting to start any small talk.

“This is a nice spot,” She continued anyways, “You can see the whole garden from here.”

“You know we’ve never had a proper conversation before,” she added after a bit of silence.

“There’s a reason for that,” he said, slightly more coldly than he intended.

“I’m going to get through to your friendly side one day.”

“I don’t have a friendly side.”

“Sure you do,” she countered, “You just hide it. But one day I’m going to find it, and we’re going to be friends.”

Dan rolled his eyes at her, but she didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she just got up and walked back to her patch of flowers.

“This is why I sleep in every day,” he mumbled to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kinda sucks (tbh everything i write kinda sucks when i think about it) but hopefully the next chapter will be better. i hope you all enjoy. Comment if you'd like, and if not then have a great day!


	4. The douchebag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There have been some tag changes, so check those to make sure nothing will trigger you before reading this.

Phil looked strange when he got out of training. Dan couldn’t quite put his finger on what was different though. It was liked the older boy seemed sick almost, but that wasn’t exactly it. It made Dan wonder what the boy’s power was and what they were having him do in training, but since he knew that Phil wouldn’t be allowed to tell him if he asked, Dan chose to ignore the other boy’s slightly off demeanor.

“Ready for lunch?”

“Definitely,” Phil responded, sounding normal enough.

“Good. The cafeteria food here is amazing. It’s one of the only things that can get me out of my room,” Dan half joked.

Phil chuckled slightly in response.

When they arrived at the school’s cafeteria, Phil gasped slightly. There were multiple levels and more food booths than he could count each serving different kinds of food with an abundance of tables and chairs in the center of each level.

“How can you choose what to eat with so many options?” Phil asked, overwhelmed slightly.

“You’re stuck here forever, so you’ll get to try everything eventually. But if you want a recommendation, the pizza place on the second floor is usually my go to,” Dan responded, already making his way up the stairs to the pizza booth.

Phil jogged slightly to catch up to the other boy and followed him to a delicious smelling booth with a stunning number of pizza options to choose from. Dan ordered a slice of Texan barbeque and Phil did the same. After giving the man in charge of the booth their student ID numbers as payment, which Dan always thought was ridiculous since there wasn’t a limit on how much food they can get and no one besides the students and faculty can enter the building, Dan made his way over to his favorite secluded table in the back corner of the large room with Phil following behind him.

“I wouldn’t recommend sitting with me,” Dan warned as he sat down and began eating his pizza.

“Why not?” Phil asked, sitting across from the other boy anyways.

“I guess you’re going to find out,” Dan half muttered.

Phil looked slightly worried but brushed it off and started eating his pizza. He could see why Dan liked it so much; it was probably the greatest pizza he had ever tasted in his life. He didn’t have long to enjoy it, however, before someone came up behind him and knocked it out of his hands.

“Has the vampire finally made a friend?”

Dan rolled his eyes and looked up to see Caine Thompson looming over his new roommate.

“He’s not my friend, and why don’t you go fuck yourself Caine.”

“I see you’ve still got a mouth on you, faggot.”

“I see you’re still a narcissist who thinks that making an insult out of someone’s sexuality is a good bullying technique.”

“Go suck a cock, fairy,” he said, turning his attention back to Phil, “And you, fresh meat, you must be pretty lame if you’re hanging out with this piece of trash. Tell me, what’s your power?”

“I-I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Phil stuttered out.

“Why the fuck not?” Caine said angrily.

“Obviously because he’s far more dangerous than you are, Mr. pretentious bad boy.” Dan said sarcastically.

An unsettling grin spread across Caine’s face. “We’ll see about that.”

Without warning, Phil suddenly felt a wave of intense fear and despair wash over him. The sudden feelings nearly made him double over, but the sensation disappeared nearly as suddenly as it began when Dan threw a half full bottle of Coke at Caine’s head.

“The fuck was that, Howell?” Caine exclaimed.

“You know you aren’t allowed to do that,” Dan said, “Now leave us alone or I _will_ report you, ass hat.”

“Do you think I’m scared of our little antisocial recluse? You aren’t going to report anything.”

“But I will,” Louise said suddenly from behind them.

“When did you get here?” Caine asked angrily as he turned around to look at her.

“Leave or I’ll scream,” She said simply.

“Listen here, bitch-“

Without allowing him to finish that sentence, Louise opened her mouth and let out one of the most blood curdling screams that the three boys had ever heard. The surrounding occupants of the cafeteria all turned around to see what was going on.

“Louise!” PJ, the Academy’s head librarian, said as he ran over to the group, “What’s wrong?”

“Caine is being an asshole again.”

PJ rolled his eyes. “I’m not in the mood to fill out a report right now. Caine, go somewhere. Now.”

Caine rolled his eyes angrily but stalked off none the less.

“Louise,” PJ said, “You can’t just scream whenever you need something. This is the fourth time and it’s getting old.

“Of course I can. It hasn’t failed me yet.”

Pj opened his mouth to argue, but decided it wasn’t worth it and walked away. Satisfied, Louise sat down at the boys’ table.

“What the hell was all of that?” Phil asked when it became apparent that the other two weren’t going to explain the previous situation.

“That was Caine, The Academy’s top asshole,” Louise answered, “He’s probably one of the top ten most dangerous students here, but he’s a narcissistic sociopath who likes to believe that he’s number one. And for certain reasons he loves to try and torment this one over here,” she said, pointing to Dan.

“Why does he hate you in particular so much?” Phil asked.

Dan sighed, having explained this many times before to others who had the same question.

“Short version; I don’t give a fuck about other people or what they think about me, so he gets pissed off when his mediocre attempts at bullying don’t make me feel belittled like he wants. He tried to use his ability to kill me once a few years ago, but it didn’t work. Now he’s all pissy because I’m better than him and I know it.”

“It’s not that hard to be better than a piece of scum,” Louise commented, earning a small smile from Dan.

“Kill you?” Phil said, sounding horrified.

“Don’t worry about that too much. We haven’t had any successful homicides here since before I was born. And he got put in solitary for a while after that to keep everyone else safe.”

Phil didn’t look very comforted by that.

“What’s his ability anyways?” he asked.

“Emotion control,” Louise answered, “He can make people feel whatever he wants. Although I don’t think he ever uses positive emotions on people. If I remember correctly, he caused thirteen suicides in his home town before he got caught and sent here.”

“Fourteen actually,” Dan corrected, “He killed one of the cops that arrested him but they didn’t know it was connected for a while.”

“Why is he at a school instead of in prison?”

“Lots of us have killed people with our powers because we didn’t know we had them or couldn’t control them,” Dan said, “In his file it says he told the investigators that he didn’t know what he was doing, so they put him here like they do with everyone else.”

“That’s not fair,”

“Agreed,” Dan and Louise said in unison.

The clocks in the cafeteria chimed, alerting everyone that lunch was over and they should begin heading to their next classes now.

“Come on,” Dan said, “After I take you to your last class I’m going back to bed.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Louise said to Phil before heading off herself.

“How come his power doesn’t work on you” Phil asked as the pair maneuvered through the now crowded hallways.

“It does,” Dan answered, “But you can’t push a person past rock bottom, so I don’t notice any difference.”

Phil wasn’t sure how to respond to that, although he figured he should probably try to comfort the other boy in some way. He missed his chance to, though, as they arrived at his classroom and Dan walked off before he could think of something to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be in two weeks. Comment if you feel like it, it always makes my day to read your comments, and I hope you all have a wonderful day :)


	5. Nightmares

Dan was still sleeping when Phil came back to their dorm. He noticed that the younger boy didn’t look peaceful as he slept like most people do. His face was scrunched up like he was worrying about something, even in his current unconscious state. As he set his bag down on his bed, Phil began to wonder if he would end up like that before long.

When the FBI had detained him after the incident back at his university, they had convinced him that The Academy was a safe haven for people like him who were too unpredictable to be with the rest of society, but with what he’s seen so far he isn’t so sure if they were right. After all, he’s only been here for one day and he’s already been practically attacked by a guy who under normal circumstances would be considered a serial killer.

And yet somehow Phil is the most dangerous person attending this school.

Phil lies down on their couch, exhausted from all of the negative thoughts that have been swirling around his brain today. Phil likes to think of himself as a rather naturally positive person, his friends would even go as far as to call him a “literal ray of sunshine,” but everything that’s been happening over the past few days has pulled him down mentally to a level that he’s far too unfamiliar with dealing with.

“It’s just because everything is happening so fast,” he attempted to reassure himself, “In a week or two you’ll get used to everything and you’ll go back to being your old self.”

If he’s being honest with himself, he’s still hoping that all of this is just a bad dream he’s yet to wake up from. A week ago he was just an average university student whose biggest worry was coming out to his admittedly rather attractive best friend as pansexual. Now he’s a threat to Global security and permanently locked away from the rest of the outside world with a kid who uses bluntness and sarcasm as a coping mechanism for what has to be pretty severe depression.

“Maybe if I take a nap I’ll wake up and none of this will be real,” he said to himself as he grabbed a soft blanket from the back of the couch and curled up.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_He was in a morgue. Phil wasn’t even sure why their university had a morgue, probably for science students he figured, but now he was locked in until someone decided to come by and let him out._

_He knew that there would be some degree of hate and bullying that came along with coming out, but he wasn’t really prepared for this level of torment. If he knew that the school’s group of trouble making homophobes were going to break into his room in the middle of the night and drag him across campus to lock him in a room full of dead bodies, he probably would have stayed in the safety of the closet for the next year and a half that he had left to get his degree._

_“Is anyone out there?” Phil called through the thick door, but like all of the other times that he’s beckoned over the last hour, there was no reply._

_He slumped down the wall until he was sitting on the cold tile floors._ Just try to stay positive _he thought to himself as he tried to slow down his anxious heartbeat._ Someone will come by in the morning, and in the meantime there’s nothing to be scared of. Cadavers locked in drawers can’t hurt you.

_Not long after that thought, Phil heard a soft thunk come from the wall that was holding the rows of organized corpse drawers. His heartrate spiked, and he tried to tell himself not to worry. He was in a room full of dead bodies at night; it would make sense for his paranoia to kick in and make him hear things that weren’t there. It’s just like being in a haunted house. Nothing to be afraid of._

_Then there was another thunk, it was louder and more clear this time. Phil could hear his heart pounding in his ears now._

_“Hello?” a soft but pained voice called._

Nope nope nope nope nope _Phil thought as he scurried back to the door and tried hopelessly to get it to open for him._

_“Where am I?” the earlier voice called._

_Phil didn’t reply. He could feel a panic attack coming on as he fell back to the floor as far away from the wall of bodies as he could get himself._

_More thunking started, gradually increasing to knocks and bangs. More voices joined the first with cries of “Where am i?” and “help me,” gradually crescendoing until they were impossible to distinguish from one another. The wall started shaking as the locks on the drawers tried to keep the newly animated corpses contained._

_“Please stop, please stop, please stop,” Phil whispered to himself as the screams continued from inside the far wall, “This isn’t real, this can’t be real, this isn’t real…”_

_Three hours later, although in the dream it felt like days, a janitor finally came through the halls and heard the screaming coming from the morgue room. Unlocking the door as quickly as he could, the janitor flung the door open to find a crying man sitting in the corner of the room and an entire wall of locked drawers that, from what he could see, were filled with screaming people trying to escape._

_“What the fuck is happening in here?” The janitor yelled, too shocked by what he was seeing to even begin to guess what was going on._

_“I don’t know,” Phil said as he continued sobbing on the floor, “They won’t stop, they won’t stop, they won’t stop…”_

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Phil!” Dan yelled, trying to wake the older boy from what was obviously a nightmare, “Wake up!”

Phil’s eyes snapped open and he took a minute to take in his surroundings. He was still on the couch in their living room, but the blanket he was wrapped up in was now discarded in a heap on the floor. He must have thrown it off while he was thrashing around in his sleep.

“You were having a nightmare. You’re fine now,” Dan said in an oddly comforting voice.

Phil rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up more.

“What time is it?” he asked.

“Seven thirty,” Dan said, pointing to the clock that was projected onto the wall behind him, “You slept through the cafeteria’s dinner, but we have some food in the kitchen if you’re hungry. Although with how loud you were screaming I doubt you have an appetite right now.”

He was right about him not having an appetite. Phil felt so nauseous from his dream that he didn’t think he’d be able to eat for a while.

“I was screaming?” he asked, slightly embarrassed.

“Yeah,” Dan replied, “But that’s pretty normal. A lot of us end up with recurring nightmares when we first come here since it’s usually traumatic experiences that get us put here.”

Phil wasn’t very comforted by that statement.

“Go shower,” the younger suggested, “It will clear your head and make you feel better. Plus, I want to play Mario kart and you’re in my spot.”

Phil rolled his eyes but got up anyways. A shower did sound peaceful and relaxing, and he’s going to need some peace if he’s going to keep up his positive personality. Now that he’s stuck here for the rest of his life, his personality is the only thing he’s got left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case I didn't do a good enough job explaining it in the nightmare/flashback, Phil puts life into things in a similar way to how Dan takes life out of things. (Which is what most of you were guessing he could do.)  
> I hope you liked it. The next chapter will be in two weeks. Comment if you'd like, and have a nice day. You're all wonderful.


	6. visitors

Dan led Phil around to his classes for the rest of the week until he was fairly sure that they older boy could navigate his way around by himself. He was more than ready to return to his regular, near nocturnal sleep schedule by this point, but unfortunately for Dan, things don’t usually work out the way he wants them to.

Slightly after seven thirty in the morning on the first day that Phil went to class on his own, Dan’s phone started ringing loudly beside his bed.

“The fuck do you want?” Dan said into the phone, not bothering to check who it was since it was only ever Tyler that called him.

“Good morning to you too, Princess,” Tyler responded.

Dan rolled his eyes, “Ty, I went to bed at like five this morning. What do you want?”

“You’ve got a visitor.” Tyler said.

Dan rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up more, “Who is it this time?”

“Your grandmother. The one from Wisconsin.”

Dan groaned, “Can you just tell her that I did something horrible and I’m not allowed visitors today? I don’t want to see her.”

“She’ll know that’s a lie since they let her in here to begin with. And besides, she drove halfway across the country to see you. You haven’t spoken to any of your family in over a year now. Will you just go see her for a couple of minutes?”

“…Will you come with me?” Dan asked, slightly angry with himself for having to have Tyler there with him for comfort in situations like these.

“Of course. I’ll meet you outside of the visitor’s hall in ten.”

Hanging up the phone, Dan looked around his room for some clean clothes to wear. He considered putting on the Red button up that his grandmother sent him last year for Christmas, but then decided against it. Talking to his grandmother was going to be awkward enough, so he might as well have the comfort of his regular clothes.

With the exception of people like Caine who are constantly getting in trouble, The Academy allows its students to visitors as often as three days a week. Many students are more than happy to see their friends and family while they’re here, but just as many students would rather not be allowed visitors at all. Dan was one of the latter group.

Dan didn’t actually have any friends before being sent to The Academy, and he lost most of his immediate family when his ability first manifest itself. Because of this, he usually manages to avoid having to talk to the rest of his family and anyone else from the outside, but sometimes he’s not so lucky. Most of his aunts, uncles, and cousins don’t particularly want to get involved with him, so he hasn’t spoken to most of them since he was still an innocent child. His grandparents, however, were trying their hardest to stay in touch with him. They constantly sent him gifts with little cards on his birthday or Christmas, they sent him letters at least once a month even though he never responds to them, and sometimes they even drive across the country unexpectedly to talk to him for a bit.

Dan would admit, he doesn’t exactly hate his grandparents, and he’s very grateful for how hard they’re trying to keep him a part of their family, but he’d rather they just give up on him like everyone else. He’s a mess of a person, he’s never going to leave the school, and although Tyler has tried to tell him thousands of times that they understand that it was an accident and don’t hold anything against him, he’s always going to be the one that killed their children; grandchild or not. They’d be better off pretending he doesn’t exist.

“There you are,” Tyler said when he turned the corner.

“Green hair today,” Dan responded.

“Are you ready to see her?”

“No, but that doesn’t really matter does it?” Dan said, a bit more whiney than he intended.

“Do you remember your safe word?” Tyler asked.

Dan, although he still wasn’t great at it, had a really hard time dealing with other people when he first came here. Being round people too long could overwhelm him easily and he’d have panic attacks constantly. To help him feel more comfortable, he and Tyler decided on a safe word so that if everything felt like it was too much, he could throw it into the conversation and Tyler would make an excuse for them to leave. Although he can handle things much better now, the two still have the system in case he needs it.

“Cactus,” Dan replied.

“Good. And you don’t have to stay long. Just a few minutes.”

They walked into the Visitors hall and Dan thanked every god he could think of for there not being many people in there today. His grandmother was all the way in the back near the corner, and her face lit up when she saw Dan enter the room.

“Daniel! You’ve grown so much! At this rate you’re gonna be taller than your Dad was.”

“Hi grandma,” Dan said in response, sitting down in a chair across from her at the small metal table.

“And Tyler, you’re looking great too,” She added when Tyler sat down.

“Thank you, Lydia. I see you’re going with a more natural look now; you pull it off well.”

The three continued on in simple conversation, although it was mostly Tyler and Lydia that were talking. She caught them up on who was graduating this year, who was getting married, and who was having kids. Tyler mentioned that Dan would be graduating this year, but they didn’t have a ceremony that she should come to. After about twenty minutes, Dan started to feel his hands shaking from all of the back and forth.

“So what are you learning about in school, Dan?” his grandmother asked.

“There’s a lot. In science we’re having a unit about cactus and other succulents. That’s pretty cool.”

“Ooh, that sounds interesting.”

Tyler’s phone beeped loudly, and he made a bit of a show about taking it out and reading it.

“I’m sorry Lydia, but the principal wants to talk to Dan for a bit. Is it alright if we cut this a bit short?”

“Oh, of course,” she said, “It was nice getting to see you again, Dan.”

“You too,” he said, standing up a bit quicker than was probably necessary.

They said their goodbye’s and quickly walked out, making their way back to Dan’s dorm.

“Thank you,” Dan said quietly, half hoping Tyler wouldn’t hear him.

“Anytime. And since I woke you up so early we can move training to after dinner so you can sleep. I’m assuming you’re going to skip all of your other classes today.”

“Probably,” he said, looking down to see if his hand was still shaking.

“I’ll tell your teachers. Go rest up, Princess.”

Dan rolled his eyes, “Fuck off,” he said without any malice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned on this being longer, but I've been super busy this week with school and personal stuff. I hope you like it anyways. Also, social safe words are awesome for people with social anxiety. Me and my sister have one and it makes going outside so much less stressful. Just fyi. the next chapter will be in two weeks, and i hope you all have a nice day!


	7. games

“Dan, are you in there?” Someone said through his bedroom door.

Dan rubbed his eyes and grabbed his phone, checking the time. _Shit_ he thought when he saw that it was after seven thirty in the afternoon. Quickly putting on his gloves and hopping out of bed and opening the door to find Phil with his hand up ready to knock on the door.

“Careful there,” Dan said, “You could accidentally punch someone in the face.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Phil muttered to himself, recalling many cringe worthy encounters with some of his friends during high school sleepovers.

Dan cracked a small smile at that as he walked past the other boy and made his way to their small kitchen.

“You weren’t at lunch or dinner today; are you okay?” Phil asked, following the younger boy to the kitchen.

“I’m fine, mom,” Dan replied sarcastically, taking pizza rolls out of their freezer and putting some in their microwave, “Don’t worry about me, you’ll just end up exhausting yourself,” he added more seriously.

“Someone needs to worry about you,” Phil said, “Everyone needs someone to worry about them.”

“I disagree, but Tyler likes to stay in my business, so I’ve got the role of mother hen already. Besides, I’ve got a lot of issues. It’s in your best interest not to get too involved with me.”

The microwave beeped, signaling that they pizza rolls were done. Dan pulled the plate out and immediately bit into a steaming pizza roll, not seeming bothered by the fact that it was still steaming hot on the inside.

“You realize that we live together, right?” Phil said, “Roommates usually get along pretty well. It’d be weird if we just treated each other like strangers.”

“You’re only here until they build a new set of dorms, then you’ll be leaving and I’ll have my dorm to myself again. No reason for us to get too attached to each other. Besides,” he shoved more burning hot pizza rolls into his mouth, “I’m a giant dick, which you’ve probably noticed. Not really _friend_ material.”

Without waiting for some sort of reply, Dan shoved a handful of pizza rolls into his mouth and headed out the door. Phil shook his head; sometimes Dan seemed like a very helpful and caring person, but other times it was like he was intentionally irritating so that people wouldn’t want to deal with him. Phil didn’t have very long to think about it, though, before his phone started vibrating in his pocket.

He’d been allowed to keep his phone when he joined The Academy, but he had to change his phone number for “security reasons.” His parents and brother had been given his new number, but after some security people explained that they couldn’t exactly tell them _why_ he was here but they guaranteed he was safe, his family hadn’t been calling often either. Besides mindless apps, he’s barely used his phone at all since he got here.

He was confused when he saw a picture of Louise with blue eyes and pink hair holding up a peace sign on his screen. He hit answer and put the phone up to his ear. “Hello?”

“Phil,” Louise said cheerily from the other end of the phone, “I just saw Dan leave for training. Do you want to hang out?”

“How did you get my number?”

“I took your phone at lunch today. So do you want to hang out? We can play Mario kart.”

“I didn’t even see you at lunch today,” Phil said.

“I know you didn’t. So Mario kart?”

Phil sighed, but figured it was easier not to argue. He hasn’t known Louse for very long, but he’s figured out that she’s not exactly normal. “Sure, why not. My dorm or yours?”

“Yours obviously,” She said, walking in through the front door, “Why would I walk all the way back to my room?”

Phil rolled his eyes. “You could knock you know.”

“I could, but it’s easier not to. I call Yoshi by the way,” She said, sitting down on the couch and grabbing the controllers. “Don’t be shy,” She said, patting the space next to her.

Phil sat down beside her and they picked their characters and cars. “Which track are we doing?”

“Rainbow road,” She said, selecting the track.

“Really, you’re that guy?” Phil said.

“It’s not _that_ hard,” Louise said, “Just don’t fall off the sides and you’ll be fine.”

“That is a lot easier said than done,” Phil said, preparing to fail miserably.

“Just think of it like life,” She said when they started the first lap, “Lots of things can knock you off course and put you behind everyone else, but if you just focus on your goal you’ll finish with no problem.”

“That sounds great, but it isn’t helping me drive any better.” Phil said, narrowly avoiding being hit by a green shell by swerving and sending his car off into space.

“It works tremendously for me,” she said, managing to avoid every obstacle and hold a giant lead in first place.

“How are you not falling off everywhere?” he said as he fell of the side after starting the second lap.

“I told you. Focus.”

“I am focusing,” he said as someone hit him from behind with a red shell, “That doesn’t stop everyone else from trying to sabotage me.

Louise passed the finish line and started her third lap, with Phil and most of the CPU characters still only about hallway through their second lap.

“How much do you play this game?” Phil asked.

“This is my third time, actually,” she said.

“That’s clearly a lie,” Phil said, being knocked off the side by a green shell right before starting his third lap.

“I’m not lying, I’m just amazing. Dan on the other hand plays this game religiously and could probably even beat me.”

“I’d believe that- _what?_ ” he said as she passed the finish line in first place.

“Don’t feel too bad; eighth place isn’t the worst after all.”

“I’m in fourth,” he said, turning the corner and approaching the finish line.

“Not for long.”

Right before crossing the finish line, he gets hit with three red shells, allowing four more people to pass him first.

“What? I was right there!” he yelled, biting the controller in frustration.

“Don’t get too worked up babe, it’s just a game,” She said, laughing a bit.

“I was right there!”

“You can’t win them all, Phil. Sometimes things happen at the last second; you’ve just gotta try again.”

With that, she set the controller down and made her way to the door.

“Where are you going?” Phil asked, “We’ve only done one race.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to hang out for very long, now did I?” she said, walking out the door, “Have a good night, Phil.”

 _She’s so weird_ he thought to himself, changing the game over to single player. He selected rainbow road again and, despite falling off three times, he managed to finish in third place. He smiled, proud of himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I'm the friend that always picks rainbow road. prepare your pitchforks.)  
> I have spring break this week, so there might (probably won't) be a bonus chapter sometime this week. (If not, it'll be in a two weeks like normal.) Also, there are a lot of you reading this. I'm not sure why, since this idea has probably been done to death in like every fandom, but thank you all for following this :) All of your nice comments make my day, so don't be shy. Have a nice day, everyone. You're all wonderful!


	8. the comfort of books

Dan tries his best to avoid people as much as he can, but unfortunately sometimes social interaction is necessary, like when he runs out of things to entertain himself with and gets in a reading mood. Luckily during the weekends most of the students try to avoid the doing anything educational, so the massive library at the center of the top floor of The Academy is practically deserted when Dan makes his way inside on Saturday afternoon.

“Looking for anything specific?” PJ asked as soon as Dan walked through the door.

Dan waved his arm non-commitally and tried to disappear into the maze of bookshelves. Over the years PJ had learned not to bother Dan when he was browsing in the library, which Dan was thankful for. He skimmed his gloved fingers gently over the rows of book spines as he walked down the aisles. There’s something strangely comforting about being surrounded by books, Dan thinks. It’s like walking by hundreds and thousands of small, independent universes that are just patiently waiting for someone to come by and dive into them.

His fingers come to a stop as they land on an old battered copy of _Hamlet_. Dan’s read through the play countless times, since he’s a giant nerd with a lot of free time due to his non-existent social life, but he always feels a bit too dark after reading through it. It’s quite obvious that the story would have had a much less tragic ending if the mad prince would have killed himself when he first started contemplating life and death, and Dan doesn’t like to think about that too much.

Dan isn’t suicidal, at least not currently; but the fact that he’s already ended six people’s lives prematurely, and he knows he’s more likely to raise that number than leave it stationary, makes him wonder if it really would be better overall if he got rid of himself before he could kill anyone else. He told Tyler about these thoughts once, and the older boy brought up that if Dan killed himself, then he’d end up killing seven people before he died instead of six, so if he doesn’t want to be the reason for anyone else to die, then killing himself would be counterproductive.

Dan, of course, thought this reasoning was shit, but it’s still what he tells himself when he starts having dark thoughts.

He started walking again, trailing his fingers over the spines and he follows the twisting corners of the shelves. After a bit more wandering, he finds an old favorite of his: _To Kill a Mockingbird_. Tyler had actually recommended it to him back when he was ten years old, and he had fallen in love with the book. He’s not even sure how many times he’s read it at this point, but it’s never any less amazing. Quite the contrary actually; he grows more in love with the novel every time he reads through it.

Pulling the faded hardcover book off the shelf, Dan walked back through the rows of book stuffed shelves to the front desk, where PJ was reading through a large encyclopedia.

“Find everything?” Pj asked, setting down his large book.

Dan nodded and passed the book across the counter.

PJ had a super accurate memory, so instead of using computers to keep track of all of the books, he just made note of who was checking out which books in his head. It was a surprisingly efficient way to run the library, and there was no danger of data breaches or hacking from students who wanted to get out of overdue book charges. Lots of higher ups that work in super confidential and secret branches of the government try to convince him to work as the government’s own hack proof data and file saving system, but PJ always declines. He’s not really one for drama and secrets, and he would rather spend all day reading bulky reference books and learning about strange mid-Atlantic sea bacteria and things of that nature.

“You check this book out a lot,” PJ noted, handing the book back to Dan after looking at the barcode, “You can just keep it if you want. We have three more copies anyways, plus a class set.”

“I’ll think about it,” Dan mumbled, holding the book to his chest and walking out of the large doors, making his way back to his dorm.

*~*~*~*~*~

Dan had been reading on the floor in front of the TV for about an hour when he heard a loud thud coming from the front door.

“Hello?” he called, wondering what the loud noise was.

The door opened and Phil walked in, rubbing his forehead and looking exhausted.

“I forgot to use the door knob,” the older boy mumbled as he walked in and flopped down face first on the sofa.

“You look terrible,” Dan commented.

“Thanks, I didn’t notice,” Phil replied sarcastically.

Dan smirked slightly at the slightly sassy comment and went back to reading. He was lying on his stomach, and the position was starting to get uncomfortable, but finding a reading position that doesn’t get uncomfortable after a while is nearly impossible, so he’d rather just deal with it until something forces him to get up. Everything was fine for about twenty minutes, but then Phil started snoring from his spot on the couch. Dan tried to ignore it at first, but the Phil kept getting louder and louder until Dan couldn’t stand it anymore. Grabbing a throw pillow off of the armchair in front of him, Dan chucked it at Phil’s face, waking him up.

“Wha-“

“Go snore in the bedroom,” Dan said, going back to his book.

Phil mumbled something under his breath and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

“What are you reading?” he asked when he saw what Dan was doing on the floor.

“A book,” Dan said, not bothering to look up.

Phil huffed and stood up, giving up on the attempt at conversation.

“I’m taking a shower.”

“Don’t drown,” Dan said as he walked past, still staying focused on the words in front of him.

When he heard the sound of water starting to flow down the hallway, he finally looked up. He gazed down the hallway for a few moments before shaking his head and going back to his book. _Maybe that was a bit too much_ he thought to himself, feeling slightly guilty for being so rude.

“He’s too nice; you’ll just break him,” he whispered to himself.

He kept looking at the pages for a few more minutes before realizing that he wasn’t actually reading anymore. He huffed angrily and closed the book after dog-earing the page and set in on the coffee table.

“I fucking _hate_ having a roommate,” He said to himself, rubbing the heels of his gloved hands on his eyes, “Almost wish he was dick so it would be easier.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm in a writing mood, so I'm not sure how many random chapters you'll be getting while I'm on spring break. It might just be this or there might be like 20 or something. Idk. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and thank you all for the nice comments. I don't reply to most of them (because I'm awkward as fuck) but i do read through all of them (usually quite a few times)and i love them so much :) Have a nice day everyone!


	9. Panic attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New tags have been added, so check those before reading if you're triggered by anything. Stay safe peeps.

“I can’t do it,” Phil said for probably the fifth time that day.

“Yes you can,” his instructor said, beginning to sound agitated, “You just have to try harder. Do it again.”

Phil sighed but turned back to the dead flower sitting in a small pot on the table in front of him. He tried to put all of his focus into making it stand back up, full of color again, but nothing happened. Just like all of the times so far today.

“This isn’t working,” he said, giving up again.

“You’re just not trying hard enough.”

“I’m doing the best I can,” he said, “but I can’t just _will_ things back to life.”

“You reanimated an entire morgue a month ago,” his instructor said, “And you can bring the plants back through touch, so obviously it wasn’t some fluke. You should be able to do this.”

“That’s a lot easier said than done,” he mumbled to himself.

His instructor rolled his eyes and sat down in his large rolling chair, stroking his graying goatee.

“When you were in the morgue, what emotions were you experiencing?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Phil started, “I was feeling a lot of things.”

“Think about it; try to remember. What emotions stick out the most in your memory?”

 _I’ve been trying to block out the memory altogether. I don’t want to think about it,_ Phil thought. He didn’t even want to train with his powers. Multiple people have already told him how dangerous he could be in the right circumstances, but if he’s just going to be locked up here for the rest of his life then why does he even need to learn how to control them? As long as he doesn’t accidentally brush up against a corpse everything should be fine.

“Fear mostly,” he said after a long pause, “and regret and anger too probably.”

“Hmm,” his instructor said, still stroking his goatee in a pretentious way, “Fear is a very strong emotion. Many people’s abilities are rooted in fear or anxiety. Mine first appeared when my high school principal told me I didn’t have enough credits to graduate. My heart started racing and next thing I knew the pencil cup on the desk had burst into flames.”

He made a small flame sprout from his palm for emphasis, then extinguished it almost immediately.

“I think I know how we can make some progress here; I’ll have to get something from one of the nurses first though,” he said, smirking in a way that made Phil feel uneasy.

*~*~*~*~*~*  
Dan was fixing his hair in the bathroom, getting ready to go to lunch, when he heard the front door to his dorm fly open and crash against the wall. He opened the bathroom door in enough time to watch Phil fly past him in the hall and dart into their bedroom, slamming the door quickly behind him.

“The fuck?” Dan said to himself, walking over to the bedroom door and leaning his ear against it.

He could hear rapid breathing coming from the other side, loud enough that he could clearly tell what was going on with the other boy. _Don’t get involved Dan_ he thought to himself as he opened the door, fully intent on getting involved anyways despite himself,

He opened the door slowly, not wanting to scare the other boy. Phil was huddles up on his bed, back pressed against the wall and legs tucked up against himself. His head was on his knees and although the room was dark, Dan could tell that he was shaking.

“Phil,” he said gently, moving to sit down on the other end of the bed so as not to crowd him, “You’re okay. You need to try to calm down. Can you try to breathe with me?”

Dan took deep breathes, miming the movement with his hands for emphasis. Phil had looked up from his knees to look at him, but his breathing stayed erratic. He started shaking more, and his eyes started to lose their focus. Worried that he would hyperventilate and pass out, Dan quickly rummaged through his bedside drawer and pulled out a bottle of pills from the bottom. He poured two into his gloved hand and the held them out for Phil to see.

“These are going to calm you down. Can you swallow them for me?” he said, holding them out.

Phil didn’t respond, he probably wasn’t even able to at this point, but he did open his mouth slightly, which Dan figured was probably a yes. He tried to hold the older boy’s head still with one hand and pushed the pill past his lips and into his mouth. Phil closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on swallowing the pills, and when he finally did his breathing started to slow down a bit and his shaking lessened to something closer to shivering.

“I’m going to get you some water, okay? I’ll be right back,” he said, running to the kitchen and grabbing a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

When he got back Phil was still breathing a bit erratically, but it was definitely more under control than earlier. He was still trembling, but he looked more exhausted than anything. Dan handed him the bottle of water and watched him take a few shaky sips before setting it down on his matching bedside table.

“What did you give me?” he asked groggily.

“Pills that Tyler gave me when I used to have panic attacks a lot. They’re pretty strong so they’ll probably put you to sleep for the rest of the day, but they work fast which is good.”

Phil nodded slightly and started to uncurl himself so he was laying on the bed instead of sitting against the wall. Dan took the blanket that was at the end of the bed and pulled it up over him, knowing that Phil wouldn’t have the energy to do it himself and would probably wake up freezing in a few hours otherwise.

“Do you get panic attacks a lot?” Dan asked, “Because the nurses here can prescribe medications and things. Plenty of us have anxiety problems, so you won’t need to be embarrassed about it or anything.”

Phil shook his head. “I don’t get them a lot; I’ve only had a few. My instructor gave me a pill earlier to make me anxious so I could use my power better in training is why I had this one.”

 _That doesn’t sound quite right_ Dan thought to himself. Usually training was focused on _not_ using your abilities when your upset in the beginning. The point of The Academy is to train people to control their abilities; triggering a panic attack in order to induce some sort of reaction is something Dan’s never heard of being done. He made a mental note to talk to Tyler about it later.

“Thanks for helping me. You’re like a mom,” Phil said, almost asleep.

Dan considered arguing that he definitely was not like a mom, but there wouldn’t be a point. Phil probably wouldn’t remember anything he said at this point anyways since he’s practically asleep already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the last new chapter during my spring break. (Sorry.) So now we're back to the regular update schedule. Also, I've started some new medication to manage my anxiety and depression, so I'm thinking after I finish this semester if I've got more energy I'll be doing weekly updates. So look forward to that in May,   
> Also you guys have been leaving such nice comments and i love them so much, so thanks for that. Have a nice night everyone! :)


	10. stubborn

“Dan. Dan. DAN!” Tyler yelled, snapping his fingers in front of the younger man’s face to get his attention.

“What?” Dan said, looking away from the wall e was previously staring at.

‘You’ve been zoning out a lot today,” Tyler noted, “Do you want to tell me what’s on your mind?”

Dan fiddled with his fingers a bit, trying to figure out how to word what he was thinking without sounding too involved.

“My roommate had a panic attack earlier after training. I gave him some of those pills you gave me to calm him down because it was pretty bad, and he told me that his instructor gave him like a pill or something to make him really anxious so that his power would be stronger.”

“Stronger?” Tyler asked, “He’s only been here for a month; he should be working on _not_ using his ability under distress. Even if he did master controlling his powers this early, which I don’t even think is possible for a level 5, they shouldn’t be inducing panic attacks. Are you sure you heard him right?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll have a word with his instructor tonight. Do you know who his instructor is?”

Dan shook his head.

“I’ll look in his file later; right now you’re supposed to be training. Why did you put your gloves back on?” Tyler asked, just now noticing the boy’s hands.

“’Cause,” Dan replied unhelpfully.

“Dan, please don’t do this again,” Tyler said, getting ready for the argument that they have every couple of months without fail.

“I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“I know you don’t, but you have to.”

“Why?”

“You know why, now please take your gloves off so we can finish.”

Dan crossed his arms and looked at his friend defiantly.

“I know you don’t like it, but if you refuse to do your training then they’re going to put you in solitary for a week.”

“Only if you report it.”

Tyler sighed, rubbing his eyes. His hair started shifting from the bubblegum pink that he decided on for the day to a grayer shade like it always does when he’s stressed.

“I know you hate it, but your training is important,” he started, “You’ve been getting better at controlling yourself lately. If you keep at it you’ll be able to control yourself in a few more years, but if you refuse to work on it you’ll be like this forever. Is that what you want?”

“I _want_ to be able to touch things without them dying,” Dan retorted angrily, “but that’s the only thing I _do_ in training. I’ve been trying to so hard for close to a decade and yet I still can’t even put my hand on a fucking flower without it shriveling up like a raisin. I’m _never_ going to be able to control this.”

“You _will_ be able to control your powers one day,” Tyler said, gently now, “I know you think it’s impossible, but you will. You’re making progress. Please just work with me.”

“No.”

Tyler groaned loudly and walked over to the door, locking it with his ID keycard.

“You know I hate doing this, but you aren’t leaving until you finish your training for the day.”

“You’re supposed to be my friend, Ty,” Dan said, hoping that maybe guilt-tripping would actually work this time.

“I am your friend,” Tyler said, walking back over and sitting in his chair facing Dan, “And as your friend I want you to be able to do all of the normal things that you wish you could do. If you don’t train, then you’ll always be like this. I want what’s best for you.”

Dan rolled his eyes and went back to staring at the wall he was looking at earlier. Tyler took out his phone, knowing that they would be in here for a while due to Dan’s intense stubbornness, and pulled up a mindless game to occupy his time with. They sat there like that for about two hours before Dan sighed in defeat and took his gloves back off.

“Good decision,” Tyler said, putting his phone away.

“I still don’t want to do this.” Dan said dejectedly.

Tyler grabbed a new plant to practice on and placed it in front of Dan on the table again. Dan looked at it sadly before reaching over and lightly touching the tip of his finger to one of its small, delicate green leaves. Despite his efforts and focus, the leave started turning a dingy brown almost immediately, and quickly spread throughout the plant until it was completely dead.

“Good job, Dan. It lasted longer than usual.” Tyler praised, trying to get his friend’s mood up.

“That doesn’t make it any less dead though.”

Tyler ignored the comment and grabbed another plant, placing it on the table.

“Try again.”

“It doesn’t deserve this, you know,” Dan said, looking sadly at the potted plant, “It may not be sentient, but it is still alive. It’s not fair that it has to die.”

“You know I give the dead plants to the eco-related abilities trainers,” Tyler said, “They fix up all of the plants that they can and use the rest for fertilizer. It’s not like it’s dying for no reason.”

“But what about if I get better at this?” Dan asked, running his fingers over the slightly rough surface of the pot, “I’m not going to be killing plants forever. Eventually I’m going to have to move up. I’m going to have to train with bugs and animals and other things that have thoughts and can feel pain. No one is going to be able to bring them back from the dead, now are they?”

“We have time to figure out what the next step up from plants is” Tyler said, “Don’t worry about it now. Maybe we’ll find a way for you to train without the need for actual those things.”

“We both know that that’s a lie,” he replied, “You just want me to cooperate so that we can leave. I’m not a kid anymore Tyler. I’m not stupid.”

“Please just try _one_ more time,” Tyler begged, “If you do then I’ll let you be finished for the day.”

Dan reluctantly placed his finger on the small plant and tried to focus on not draining. It quickly wilted and fell into a shriveled heap in its container.

“Happy now?”

“Yes,” Tyler said, “You can leave now.”

Dan put his gloves back on while Tyler unlocked the door. He didn’t say goodbye before leaving, which Tyler expected after having this same argument many times over the years. He had been hoping that as he got older, Dan would be less reluctant to do his training. Unfortunately, the opposite seemed to be true and their arguments were getting more and more frequent.

 _In a few more years he’ll have this under control_ Tyler thought to himself _and all of this fighting will be over._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment if you'd like because comments are my life and the next chapter will be up in two weeks. Have a wonderful day lovelies!


	11. judgements

“Julien,” Tyler said, walking in to his older coworker’s office, “Can I speak with you for a minute?”

“I don’t see why not,” he replied, setting down the book he was reading and gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk, “please, sit.”

“I wanted to talk to you about one of your students Phil Lester,” Tyler started, “He told my student that you gave him medication to induce a panic attack yesterday.”

“Yes,” Julien said nonchalantly, “What about it?”

Tyler was shocked for a moment. He had thought that Dan had probably be misinformed and Julien would give him a more likely explanation for what happened. After all, plenty of student end up with anxiety problems when they first begin training; it wasn’t too uncommon for teachers to push their students a little too far in the beginning.

“Why would you do something like that?” Tyler asked after taking a moment to process the older man’s response, “We’re supposed to be teaching the students how to _avoid_ using their powers under stress. Control is always the first step. And beyond that Phil is currently the most powerful student enrolled here; surely pushing him like that must be dangerous right now, and unethical if nothing else- “

“Mr. Oakley,” Julien interrupted, “with all due respect, I do not need _you_ of all people to tell me how to train my one of my students.”

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“To put it simply, you have been working here for nearly a decade now and you’ve only had one student. One student who has made no progress in controlling his abilities. And on top of that the only reason that you even _have_ that student is because no one else would agree to be in charge of the little monster when he first got here. I, on the other hand, have been working as a teacher and instructor here since before you were even born, and to top it all off, I have the highest success rate of every teacher here.” Julien said smugly.

“Dan _has_ made progress in controlling his abilities, and it’s very unprofessional to call him a monster.” Tyler said, trying to keep his temper under control.

“Oh, is it?” Julien said, lounging back in his office chair, “you think that someone who can’t come in contact with a human being without killing them isn’t a monster? You think that someone who murdered six people before he was even ten years old isn’t a monster? Back when I was a student here, someone like that would have been put down before they could hurt someone else. He’ll never be anything but a danger and a threat; everyone would be better off with him dead. He’s only still here because of all of the liberal hippies like you that think anyone can be better if they just try hard enough. Some people are evil by nature, and it’s a waste of time and resources to try and change them.”

Tyler’s previously green hair slowly faded to a fiery red without his noticing as his older coworker continued to speak. The older man smirked at him in a way that screamed _looks like I pressed some buttons there_ and Tyler changed his hair back to its previous green shade.

“A hundred years ago anyone with supernatural abilities would be ‘put down’ for being a danger and a threat. Liberal hippies like me are the reason this school exists and the reason that _you_ are alive right now.” Tyler said, standing up to leave, “Dan isn’t a monster; he’s a strong, brave kid who needs help. Just like the rest of us.”

Julien rolled his eyes as Tyler left, steam practically blowing out of his ears. He made a mental note to talk to the principal about Julien’s unethical teaching methods later, after he calmed down a bit.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 _What is that smell?_ Dan thought for probably the third time in the span of one hour. He had been sitting in his room reading for the past few hours and a few minutes ago a soft, chemically smell started wafting under the door and into his room. It wasn’t a very worrying scent, he recognizes it from somewhere though he can’t place his finger on what it is, but his curiosity is slowly starting to get the best of him.

Setting his book down on his nightstand, Dan puts his leather gloves back on and follows the strange smell to the living room. He finds his roommate sitting on their couch with a very excited looking Louise who’s painting his fingernails a light pastel blue.

“Are you two friends now or something?” Dan said as he entered the room.

“Sure are,” Louise said, lifting Phil’s hand up a bit so she can blow on his nails, “I could be friends with you two if you’d let me,” She added.

“No thanks,” Dan said, sitting down in one of their chairs and picking up a Mario kart controller, “I don’t want friends.”

Louise shrugged, “You’ll come around eventually. Unless you don’t.”

“How long do these take to dry?” Phil asked, waving the hand that Louise wasn’t drying around to speed up the drying process.

“Probably about ten minutes or so,” She said, releasing his hand, “mine are almost dry from earlier already.”

“I think I really like these,” Phil said, admiring his hand, “I’ve never had my nails done before. It might freak out my family a bit when they see me this week though.”

“They’re going to think they look great,” Louise assured, “Your family is really supportive and sweet.”

“You’ve never met them; you don’t know that.” Phil said jokingly.

“I know everything,” Louise said, “In fact, I know so much everything that sometimes I don’t know anything at all.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Dan said as he avoided a banana peel on the screen in front of him.

“Not yet, but it will eventually,” she said vaguely, “Speaking of which, I have to go. Don’t mess up your nails.”

Picking up her nail polish bottles, she left the two boys’ dorm, presumably to go back to her own. When the front door closed, Phil grabbed the nearest throw pillow, mindful of his wet nails, and chucked it at Dan.

“The fuck was that?” Dan exclaimed when the pillow made contact with the side of his head.

“Don’t be rude to Louise,” Phil said, “She’s weird and confusing but she’s very sweet.”

“I’ll be rude to whomever I want,” Dan said, sounding slightly like a pouting child, “You aren’t my mum you know.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tyler heard a knocking at his office door. He checked the time, a bit confused since the only person that would usually come by this late in the day is Dan, and he never knocks. Closing the document, he was working on at his computer, he reluctantly got up to answer the door.

“Hi there,“ Louise said cheerily when the door opened.

“Hello?” Tyler responded, still confused, “Can I help you?”

“Not yet,” she answered, “but that’s fine because I’m here to help you.”

She pulled a slip of paper out of the pocket of her pink jeans and handed it to the older man in front of her.

“This is the name of the medicine that Professor Julien gave to Phil, and the section of The Academy’s medical handbook that prohibits the use of that drug and others like it. It should make your meeting with the principal easier if you already have this stuff.”

Tyler read over the slip of paper that she handed him. “How did you get this?” he asked.

Louise shrugged and walked off, not seeing a reason to stay and chat. Tyler knew that Louise was a strange girl, even though she isn’t the strangest student enrolled here, but something about this situation seemed a bit odd to him.

 _Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Ty_ He thought to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! So, I have finals these next two weeks, so the next update could potentially be a few days late. I will try my best to have it done on the regular schedule though. Also, I just got back from TATINOF in Atlanta and it was AMAZING! If you have a chance to, you should definitely go see it. I loved it, my sister loved it, and my best friend who doesn't watch their videos but came along because i needed a ride even loved it. It's so great.  
> Anyways, comment if you want, it always makes my day to see what you all think, and otherwise have a fabulous day! you deserve it!


	12. Bonding

“What are you reading?” Phil asked the other boy as he walked into their shared living room.

Dan looked up, slightly startled by the other boy’s sudden appearance. He had been so wrapped up in his reading that he hadn’t noticed Phil come back from his classes.

“Jesus, give me a heart attack why don’t you,” Dan said.

“Sorry,” Phil apologized, sitting down next to the younger boy on the sofa, “Are you reading poetry?”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Dan said, feigning annoyance, “and yes I am. I have a paper due next week and I’m trying to decide on what poem I want to write about.”

“What poems are you choosing between?” Phil asked curiously.

“’The Conqueror Worm’ and ‘The Raven.’”

“You know ‘The Conqueror Worm’ used to be my favorite poem when I was younger,” Phil mentioned, “I read it in a book at my grandmother’s house when I was like seven or something and it got stuck in my head so I spent an entire summer just reciting it whenever I was bored.”

Dan gave the other boy a confused look, “That’s really weird,” He said bluntly.

“ _I’m_ really weird,” Phil replied.

“You sure are,” Dan muttered under his breath, “Although to be fair when I was twelve I had a phase where whenever I fought with Tyler I would only speak to him in Shakespeare quotes.”

Phil laughed at that, “Everyone is a little bit strange. After all, normalness leads to sadness.”

Dan rolled his eyes, “I’d have to disagree with that; I’m far from normal and I’m the physical embodiment of depression.”

Phil frowned. He felt like he should say something to comfort the younger boy in some way, but he was at a loss for what he could say that could possibly help.

“I’ll be in my room,” Dan said as he stood up after a few tense moments of awkward silence.

Phil let him leave, feeling slightly guilty about not lightening the mood. He wanted to make friends with his reclusive roommate, after all he seemed like a pretty great person when you get past the defensive sarcasm, but the challenge was proving to be more difficult than expected.

~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~

Dan stayed in his room for a few hours, finally deciding on ‘The Conqueror Worm’ as his subject and thinking of a thesis, before deciding to take a break for dinner. Phil, it seemed, had the same idea as he was already sitting at their kitchen table scrolling through his phone while a steaming slice of pizza cooled on the plate in front of him. He was mumbling something to himself, and Dan recognized it immediately when he drew close enough to hear.

“ _But see, amid the mimic rout,_

_A crawling shape intrude!_

_A blood-red thing that writhes from out_

_The scenic solitude!_

_It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs_

_The mimes become its food,_

_And seraphs sob at vermin fangs_

_In human gore imbued_.”

Deciding to be cheeky, Dan recited the last stanza with him.

_“Out—out are the lights—out all!_

_And, over each quivering form,_

_The curtain, a funeral pall,_

_Comes down with the rush of a storm,_

_While the angels, all pallid and wan,_

_Uprising, unveiling, affirm_

_That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”_

_And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.”_

 

Phil smiled at him when they finished.

“I see you know that poem pretty well,” he commented.

Dan shrugged, pulling the last remaining slice of pizza out of their fridge and putting it into the microwave.

“I know a lot of poems pretty well. I have a lot of free time and I love to read.”

“What kinds of things do you like to read?” Phil asked, pleased that it seemed like they were actually going to have a friendly conversation like normal roommates.

“Anything really. Well, except for erotic novels,” He added as an afterthought.

“Why not erotic novels?” Phil asked curiously.

“I just don’t get them. The characters are always underdeveloped and the plots are sketchy at best. I don’t mind well written sex scenes in stories, but sex for the sake of being sex isn’t really my thing.”

Phil nodded, “I can understand that, but I actually enjoy some erotic novels. I don’t read them very often though; I’ve been more into classics lately.”

“Tyler has an entire bookshelf in his office dedicated to porn. It’s actually pretty impressive how well organized it is. I used to take everything off and rearrange them in the most random order I could whenever we had a fight back when I was like eleven. It would take him hours to put everything back in its proper place,” Dan smiled slightly at the memories, “I’d usually get over whatever I was angry about after like an hour and then I’d help him put everything back where it goes and we’d talk about why I was upset.”

Phil liked the way the younger boy looked when he smiled like that. It was different from his normal pretentious and sarcastic smiles. It was bright like a full moon on a perfectly clear night, and it made Phil’s heart flutter ever so slightly in his chest when he looked at it.

He ignored that feeling.

“You know now that I’m thinking about it, organizing a shelf of porn is probably a weird thing for a ten-year-old to bond with his friend over,” Dan said, mostly to himself.

Phil laughed, and they finished their pizza together in comfortable silence before Dan went back to study alone in their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the formatting is weird. My computer was being glitchy when i typed this. Also sorry it's short, but to make up for it I'm going to (attempt) to start weekly updates! So look forward to a new chapter on Saturday.  
> Also if you're curious, I read "The Conqueror Worm" when i was younger and it's been stuck in my head ever since, so i figured why not incorporate it into the story. Have a good day!  
> Edit:So I'm probably not going to be able to do weekly updates (Unless they're really short which i don't want) So look forward to the next update on the 28th! Sorry for making you guys wait so long but it's the best I can do.


	13. Making new friends

“Phil? Are you paying attention?”

Phil blinked, not realizing that he had zoned out during class. Everyone around him had split up into groups, and Ashley, the girl who sat next to him during English, was looking at him expectantly.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head a bit, “I zoned out there for a minute.”

“That’s fine,” She said, handing him a copy of the rubric sheet on her desk, “You didn’t really miss much; he just gave us an overview of the assignment and split us into groups. We’re writing a story together basically.”

“Writing a story together?” he asked.

“Yep. We have to pick a really important moment from our lives and use it as inspiration for a young adult style shorts story.”

“The same moment for both of us or two separate moments put together in the same story?” he asked, skimming over the rubric for the assignment.

“Either one,” she said, “We’re going to have to meet up after class to do this, so what does your schedule look like? I’m usually free in the afternoon and evening.”

“So am I. Do you want to get together today so that we can get a start on what we’re going to be writing about?”

“Totally. Do you want to do it in your dorm or mine?”

“Definitely yours,” he said, “My roommate hates being around people, so he probably wouldn’t like me inviting someone in.”

Ashley took out a piece of paper and scribbled down a couple of numbers on it before handing it over to Phil.

“Here’s my dorm number and my email. Does five today work for you?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Great,” she said cheerfully, “Then I’ll see you then.”

She started packing her things into her backpack, and only then did Phil notice that the majority of the class had already left. He must have been out of it for longer than he thought. Giving his head a little shake to wake him up more, he quickly threw his belongings into his bag and started making his way to his next class.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Coming,” Phil heard someone say from the other side of the door he was standing in front of. The voice didn’t sound like Ashley, and he _really_ hoped it was her roommate and he didn’t just show up at the wrong room. That would be awkward.

A girl with short, reddish brown hair opened the door and smiled at him.

“You must be Phil. Ashley’s in the bathroom but she’ll be right out,” the girl said, moving to let him in.

“Thank you,” He said politely as he walked into their dorm.

He noticed that these girls’ dorm looked a lot homier than his with Dan. There were bookshelves covered with little nick knacks and little things here and there all around. They even had cute little pictures of them hanging up around their living room. There wasn’t really any decoration in Dan and Phil’s dorm, and it felt a lot less personal than the room he was standing in.

“Sorry about that,” Ashley said, appearing from the hallway, “Ready to get started?”

“Yep,” he said, sitting down on the couch beside the other girls.

“So what were you thinking we should write about?” Phil asked, pulling a notebook out of his bag.

“Well I was thinking about writing about my coming out experience,” Ashley said, “Since my sexuality is a big part of my life and coming out was such a big moment for me. What were you thinking we should write about?”

“Coming out actually sounds like a great idea,” Phil said, “What was your coming out experience like?”

“Really good, luckily enough. I grew up with really supportive people, and when I came out as pansexual nothing really changed except for me feeling like I really had permission to be myself without any censors or limits. Having that kind of support system is what made me want to pursue a career in queer education, and that’s what lead me to meet this wonderful girl right here.”

Ashley leaned over and a placed a quick peck on Grace’s lips, both of them smiling lovingly at each other. Phil smiled at how cute the two of them were.

“What was your coming out experience like?” Ashley asked, “If you’re queer that is; I just assumed since you said you liked the idea of the topic.”

“I’m pansexual too,” he said, “but I didn’t have as good of an experience. I think my family always kind of assumed so it never felt like I needed to ‘come out’ there, but when I came out at college a group of fuckbois broke into my dorm while I was sleeping and drug me across campus so they could lock me in a morgue. It just kinda went downhill from there.”

“That’s terrible,” both girls said in unison.

“I’m sorry you went through that Phil,” Ashley said, placing her hand on his shoulder comfortingly, “No one deserves to be mistreated because of their sexuality.”

“Thanks,” he said, happy for the sympathy but feeling slightly awkward for changing the mood of the conversation, “So how do you want to do the story? Have the character’s coming out experience be more like mine or more like yours?”

“I think we should aim for somewhere in the middle,” Ashley said, “Whenever people talk about coming out, the results are usually really really good or really really bad; but for a lot of people it’s a lot less black and white than that. I’m thinking that we should write a character that has a social group that doesn’t actually understand their queerness, but they don’t object to it either. Instead of shunning them or accepting them, their social group just kind of ignores the topic and doesn’t bring it up much.”

“I think we can work with that,” Phil agreed, “It’s not really an okay experience, and they still feel a pressure to change or alter parts of themselves to fit in, but they aren’t attacked or kicked out either.”

“We’re gonna work great together,” Ashley commented, smiling, “I can feel it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey peeps, sorry that this chapter is late. I was aiming to have it up last weekend, but the pressure of only having a week to write gave me a bit of writer's block, and then my sister graduated high school this weekend and my girlfriend's mother has been threatening me again, so my anxiety hasn't been the best lately. I'll definitely stick to the two week updates though, and unless something really goes wrong, there's shouldn't be any more late chapters.  
> Also, Ashley Mardell is a youtuber, and you should totally check her out. She makes videos about social justice and LGBTQ+ issues, and she has a series called the ABC's of LGBT that is truly amazing. And her fiance Grace is awesome too, and you'll see both of them on her channel.  
> Comment if you'd like, I love to see what you thing, and have a nice day!


	14. Lockdown: Part one

“Come in,” Principal Clark said when she heard someone knocking on her office door.

Julien walked in and set a piece of paper on her desk before sitting down.

“What’s this?” Principal Clark asked, picking up the sheet and skimming over it.

“My letter of resignation,” Julien answered.

“Is that so?” She asked, smirking slightly.

“Yes it is,” he said, “I think my years of working here have dulled my empathy a bit. It would be better for the students if I moved to a more practical position; I heard the government is needing more Gifted people in their ranks anyways.”

“Uh huh,” she said, tossing the resignation paper into the trash bin next to her desk, “I have to say Ty, if we didn’t already terminate Julien’s teaching license and have him transferred to a military unit a few days ago, that would have been a pretty convincing performance from you.”

Tyler rolled his eyes and morphed back into his regular form, but with fiery orange hair, “You could have told me when you fired the bastard.”

“I was going to tell you over coffee today actually,” Dodie said, “It’s not my fault you’re so impatient. I have to say, though, you’ve gotten better since your days as a student. Back when I was your teacher you would have waited two days tops before impersonating a teacher and turning in a fake resignation.”

“I’m not _that_ bad,” Tyler protested.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Dodie said playfully, “Are we still on for coffee tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” Tyler said, “When would I ever give up the chance to scope out all the hotties at the Starbucks up the street?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dan glanced at the sheet of paper lying on the coffee table for the eleventh time in the past hour. He had no idea what had gotten into him, but he just couldn’t help the angry feeling in his stomach whenever he looked at it.

Dan knew that Ashley was beyond in love with her girlfriend, and Phil wasn’t even really his friend so he shouldn’t feel threatened at all by the tiny slip of paper with the girl’s contact information on it, but he still is. The tiny swell of anger, that he refuses to acknowledge as jealousy because he has _literally no reason to be jealous whatsoever_ continues to grow every time he looks up from his book at the taunting little thing staring at him from atop the wooden table.

The thought that he should just wad up the offending object and throw it out quickly flashes through his mind before he hears the front door opening, with Phil walking into their dorm.

“Why are you here?” Dan asks, slightly more angrily than planned.

“My instructor for training got fired,” Phil answered, ignoring the tone of the other boy’s question because he’s learned over the week that Dan usually sounds more cruel and angry than he means to, “and they haven’t found me a replacement yet, so I’m free until lunch for the next couple of days.”

Sitting his bag down on their kitchen table, Phil makes his way into the living room and plops down beside Dan. “Wanna play Mario Kart?”

Dan snorted, “Do you want to lose terribly again?”

“I’ll be able to beat you one day,” Phil commented, “I’ll set it up.”

Dan rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he liked spending time with Phil. He put his bookmark back into his book and set it down on the coffee table in front of them, grabbing the other controller and preparing for a few games.

“What were you reading?” Phil asked, gesturing to the book that the other boy just set down as he selected his character.

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” he answered, “It’s one of my favorites.”

“It’s one of my favorites too,” Phil commented.

They started racing, with Dan winning by a huge margin every time, when without warning the power shut off and the entire room plunged into darkness.

“What the- “

Before Phil could finish his exclamation, red flashing lights started illuminating the room, and sirens similar to tornado sirens started blaring throughout the room.

“Fucking shit,” Dan said, mostly to himself even though he was yelling it, before putting his controller down and shooting up from the couch.

“What’s going on?”

“Follow me, I’ll explain later.”

Not wanting to argue, Phil followed the younger boy through the rather poorly illuminated rooms of their dorm to the small closet off to the side before their bedroom. Dan quickly opened the door and stepped inside the relatively small space that only barely fit his tall frame. After a bit of jiggling, he removed a wooden panel from the back of the closet revealing a metal door with a small keypad on it.

“What’s going on?” Phil asked, starting to freak out.

“Stay calm, I’ll explain in a minute,” Dan said, quickly punching in a lengthy code into the keypad.

The metal door popped open, and Dan moved out of the way and motioned for Phil to walk through the door. Trusting that Dan knew what he was doing, Phil walked through the ominous doorway and followed a set of long, large, concrete stairs down to another, much larger metal door with a keypad on the side. Dan quickly followed suit and punched in a different lengthy code into the second keypad. The door popped open as a loud boom sounded above them.

“Get in,” Dan said with an authoritative tone to his voice.

Phil listened and rushed into the room in front of them with Dan following closely behind. The heavy large door slammed shut behind them, and another boom sounded out above them, this one sounding even closer and more powerful than the first.

“Dan,” Phil said, his voice wavering from the panic building up in his chest, “Please tell me what’s going on right now.”

Dan flipped a switch and an orange yellow light filled up the room they were in. It was about the size of a small, one-bedroom apartment and entirely made out of thick, dark concrete. One wall had a set of bunk beds and a small side table beside it with three books messily stacked on top. Further down on the same wall was a sink with a bar of soap and a cabinet above it. On the opposite wall to the door there was a small toilet, and trash can set next to it. The rest of the room was completely bare and the ominous glow being cast over everything from the single light hanging in the center of the room gave the whole place a horror movie like feeling.

“Sorry,” Dan said, walking over to sit on the bottom bed now that the adrenalin was working its way out of his system, “I couldn’t explain because we had to get down here quick.”

A third loud boom echoed out above them as the younger boy finished his apology, and the pair both looked up anxiously at the concrete ceiling above their heads.

“We’re in code red,” Dan said, still looking at the ceiling for a few more moments before returning his gaze to the anxious older boy in front of him. “A student went rogue, and they’re a threat to the safety of everyone in The Academy. Until they can either be stopped or taken down, we have to stay down here in this bunker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN. We're getting into some of the really good stuff now. comment if you'd like, and if you feel like reading some weird shit that i wrote at five in the morning or something you should read through my latest oneshot. Other than that, have a nice day! I'll see you in two week!  
> Well, i won't see you but you know what i mean. You're all lovely.


	15. Lockdown: Part 2

Phil had been curled up in a ball for nearly an hour now, and although he wasn’t exactly having a full blown panic attack yet, he was not in any way doing well. Dan couldn’t really blame him though. Code reds are super rare, in the near decade he’s been here he’s only had to deal with one himself, and it’s only slightly less terrifying than the last time. He doesn’t know who has decided to start attacking, what their power is, what they’re after, or how quickly they’ll be neutralized. All he knows is that something is wrong and until either it’s over or whoever is running around above them makes it down to where they’re hiding.

“You need to calm down,” Dan said, picking up one of the books on the nightstand and looking it over.

“Wow, that’s so helpful,” Phil said sarcastically, although the break in his voice didn’t allow the statement to ring with much malice.

A loud boom rung out above them again, shaking their shelter a bit. Dan winced.

“Look, they built the bunkers to keep us safe in case something like this happened. Anything short of a nuclear bomb won’t be able to do any damage to us while we’re down here.”

“There’s like two doors between where we are now and our dorm room,” Phil said flatly.

The shock from the situation seemed to be wearing off a bit and some of the anxiety he was feeling is transforming into sarcastic anger, which Dan is happy about. Sarcasm as a defense mechanism is his specialty, and he can handle having angry words thrown at him much better then he can handle trying to comfort someone.

“Those doors have incredibly complex passwords that change every semester that only the people in charge of each shelter and the principal are allowed to know. They’re made out of some of the strongest metals known to mankind, and I can tell you from experience that trying to break through one of them is basically a lost cause. You’re safe down here.”

“If only a handful of people get to know the codes, then why are we the only two down here? Shouldn’t there be like one person per hall who knows the code to the nearest bunker or something like that?”

“That’s kind of how it works,” Dan said, “Lower level students have one bunker per hall, and when they have to evacuate they all go to wherever that bunker is as quickly as they can and then their Hall Leader puts in the code for the first door and starts sending people down to the second door. Once everyone gets through they lock that door and continue down, but if whoever the threat is turns up and tries to get through before everyone is down there, they close up the door to keep everyone that made it down safe.

“The upper levels can’t work like that though. If they put all of the top ten or twenty most dangerous students into a concrete room together then most of us would probably end up killing each other, so instead each of the level four dorms are connected so that only four of them at a time will be in the same bunker, and the level five dorms all have their own safe rooms. They’ll probably tell you all about it when they build the new wing and you get your own room since you’ll have your own passwords to remember and stuff.”

Phil took a minute to take in all of this new information.

“Does this happen a lot?” he asked

“Definitely not,” Dan replied, “I’ve been here for practically a decade and I’ve only ever dealt with this once before.”

“What happened that time?” Phil asked, uncurling a bit and trying to sit up straighter, “Who went rouge and how long were you down here?”

“Are you sure that you want to know the answer to that question? It might make you more paranoid, and no offence but you aren’t the most well put together person at the moment.”

“I’m already paranoid. A distraction from the war sounds going on above us would be nice.”

As is to emphasize his point, another particularly loud boom shook their ceiling.

“I guess you’re right,” Dan said, moving to sit next to the other boy, “Well, it was about a month or so after I got sent here. Tyler was trying to get me to go to class since I used to skip a lot more back then than I do now, and we heard this really high pitched scream from just down the hall. He had jumped up and started putting in the code to the top door before I even knew what was going on, and then smoke started coming in under the bottom of the front door. The sirens didn’t start going off until we were already in here, so it’s a good thing Ty reacted as quickly as he did.

“The girl that went rogue was Carry Master. She was a level four, but if she survived that whole thing they would have moved her up to level five. She could control the temperature of her body, and she ended up burning down most of the dorms and killing five teachers before one of the government’s special teams got here and took her down. We were down here for about thirty-six hours before it was all over. No one really knows why she decided to go on a rampage through The Academy, but I looked through some of her records in the database a couple of years later and apparently her brother who was her only remaining family died in a school shooting the day before.”

“That’s terrible,” Phil remarked, “that she lost her brother and that she killed so many people in response.”

“I know. It’s horrible when people hurt others because they’re hurting.”

They both fell silent after that, letting the silence be filled by the distressing battle sounds echoing above them.

“So do we have anything to pass the time while we’re down here?” Phil asked, rubbing his arms nervously but overall appearing much more calm than he as earlier.

“We’ve got some books,” Dan said, gesturing to the small side table, “and I’m pretty sure there’s a pack of chalk under the top pillow.”

He reached up and grabbed the small box of chalk from under the pillow, holding it out to the older boy.

“Want to play hangman? Or Tic-tac-toe?”

Phil smiled a bit at the gesture. Dan had a bit of a mothering quality about him, even if he was rather awkward around people a lot of the time.

“I’d love to. Be warned though, I am the _master_ of playing hangman.”

Dan chuckled, “Oh are you now?”

“Yep. My parents made a rule that we can’t play hangman, scrabble, or other word related games on family game nights because of my stupendous skills.”

“Well Mr. Stupendous, my antisocial tendencies led me to having an obnoxiously large vocabulary. Prepare to be dethroned by a kid four years younger than you,” Dan said opening the box of chalk dramatically.

“You’re nearly 18; I wouldn’t really classify you as a ‘kid.’”

“If only the government agreed with you on that so I could drop out and not have to deal with the bane of my existence that it school.”

“Shouldn’t whoever your legal guardian is be able to withdraw you from school at like sixteen or something?” Phil asked, sitting on the ground and drawing a hangman stand and letter blanks, “Or if you’re an emancipated minor you should be able to withdraw yourself I’m pretty sure.”

Dan’s head popped up like a confused chicken at that.

“I’ve never thought about that before,” Dan said, mostly to himself, “Who _is_ my legal guardian?”

Phil stopped his scribblings on the floor.

“You don’t know who your legal guardian is? And you’ve been here for practically a decade?”

“I was young and scared when I got here; They probably told me and just didn’t care enough to remember it. It’s probably one of my grandparents or something. L.”

“What?”

“L,” he repeated, pointing to the hangman game drawn on the floor.

Phil drew a head under the hangman’s stand.

“How has this never come up before? Isn’t there a lot of paperwork involved with staying here?”

“Tyler always deals with most of that. C.”

Phil fills in two of the blanks.

“A.”

Phil fills in two more of the blanks under the word.

“K.”

Phil draws the body line on the stick man.

“N.”

Phil fills in two more or the blanks in the word.

“E.”

Phil drew an arm on the stick man.

“Hmm. A.”

Phil filled in two more blanks in the word.

“H.”

Phil put the letter in its respective blank.

“Anachronistic,” Dan said, like it was the easiest answer in the world.

“ _How_ did you guess that?” Phil asked, pretty surprised.

“I told you I was good at this game,” Dan said smugly, grabbing a piece of chalk, “Now let’s see your skills big boy.”

“Please never say that sentence again.”

Dan chuckled, “Yeah, that was pretty terrible.”

Dan started drawing a new game on the floor when a shrill ring sounded through the bunker. Confused, Dan reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Tyler’s face stared up at him from the caller ID.

“You have _service_ down here?”

“I shouldn’t,” Dan said, giving his phone a concerned face, “These walls should be able to block cell phone signals easily.”

He unlocked his phone and held it up to his ear. The call was super staticy, but he could hear well enough. “Hello?”

“Oh thank god you have your phone with you,” Tyler said, sounding beyond relieved, “are you in the shelter?”

“Yeah, and why can you call me down here?”

“No time, I’ll have to explain later. Look, the situation up here is really bad. There’s an entire team of rogues and they’re super skilled− “

“Why are you up there!”

“Because they needed everyone they could get! Look, that’s not what’s important right now. The Principal has a plan for how to take them down but we need− “

There was a gross cracking sound followed by something akin to a shriek, and then the call shut out.

“Tyler?” Dan said, his hands starting to shake.

“Dan, what’s wrong?” Phil asked, noticing how scared the younger boy looked.

“Tyler!” Dan yelled, his voice cracking slightly, “TYLER!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, i hope you all enjoyed that. Ive been feeling a lot better recently (I'm on new depression meds and I'm seeing a new therapist) and it's definitely making me want to write more. Also I've been writing some crappy oneshots that i've been posting between updates that you can look through if you want. Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll see you in two week! have a great day!


	16. lockdown Part 3

“Dan, you need to calm down, okay?” Phil said in a gentle voice, “It’s going to be okay. Just try to stay calm and breathe, okay? Just breathe.”

Dan ignored everything that the older boy was saying. It wasn’t going to be okay. He had had nearly _everything_ ripped away from him when he was just a fucking _child,_ and now the only person left in the entire world that he dared to care about might be−

 _No_ he thought to himself, shaking slightly from the sobs ripping through him _Don’t think of the word. It’s not real until you see it. There’s still a chance he’s okay. He hasn’t left you behind yet. There’s still a chance. There’s still a chance. There’s still…_

Despite what he tried to tell himself in his head, it still felt like Tyler was gone.

“Dan, can you breathe with me?” Phil asked, putting his hand on the other boy’s leather clad shoulder as her tried to mime his calmer breathing for the him.

Dan shook the hand off his shoulder and put his head between his knees. Without Tyler there was no point in anything. There’s no one else who actually cares about him genuinely. Sure, a handful of people would probably care if he suddenly croaked one day, but they wouldn’t be bothered for more than a few days at most. He’s just the weirdly antisocial dickhead to everyone else.

“Dan I know you’re upset but you need to calm down a bit. Can you talk to me? Or just talk in general? Dan, please, you’re shaking really badly.”

Phil sounded pretty scared, but Dan didn’t care. Fuck him. He just had his world ripped out from under him; he’ll be as upset as he wants to.

_I wish I was as heartless as everyone thinks; a heart can’t break if it’s not there._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Phil had eventually given up and decided that he should just give the younger boy some space, which was rather hard to do in a small underground bunker. He moved as far away from Dan as he could, which was in front of the big metal door. He had picked up one of the books that were sitting on the night stand and started reading through it, but he wasn’t retaining much of what he was reading. He knew that he had to be the stable one right now since both of them having a meltdown would end terribly, but it was harder than it looked.

Although he was usually a bright person, Phil didn’t handle stress very well. It wasn’t too much of a problem when he was younger and just had to deal with school and sexuality crisises, but being at The Academy all these months had changed that. He’s been having enough panic attacks that he should probably be on some medications for it, but The Academy’s nurses are so busy all the time with training related injuries and kids having multiple attacks a day that doesn’t feel like he deserves to waste their time with his own problems if he’s sort of managing it.

“Move,” Dan said, startling Phil with his sudden appearance in front of him.

“What?”

“Move,” Dan repeated, “I’m going out.”

Phil looked closer at the boy looming in front of him. Dan’s face had tear tracks running down it, and his hair was ruffled and curling in various places. He must have been more upset that Phil realized if he plans on leaving the safety of the shelter before someone comes to let them out.

“Dan,” Phil said, standing back up, “Go lay down. You’re upset and you’re not thinking rationally.”

“Move or I’ll make you move.”

Dan looked determined, which Phil was worried about.

“Dan, the door doesn’t even open from this side. We can’t get out unless someone lets us out.”

Dan, rolling his eyes, shoved the older boy to the side and punched the large door with enough power that Phil couldn’t help but wince.

“Dan!”

Letting his now broken hand lay limp down by his side, he drew his right hand up and reared back. Phil tried to make a grab for Dan’s arm, but he wasn’t fast enough. He cringed when he heard the small bones shattering against the thick, cold metal. Dan, however, didn’t seem at all bothered by his now broken and bloody fists hanging by his sides.

“Get away from the door,” Phil said, grabbing Dan’s jacket sleeve and pulling him towards the beds.

Dan wiggled out of his grip and slammed his head into Phil’s. Phil let go and grabbed his skull in pain, and Dan turned to slam his shoulder into the door.

“Open, open, open, open, open…” Dan chanted to himself, trying with no success to get the door closing them in to open.

Phil tried to regain his bearings after the hard hit to the head. Acting quickly, he grabbed the pillows off of the bunk beds and threw them onto the ground next to the door. When he was sure they were in a good enough position, he grabbed Dan around the waist and spun them both around, using their momentum to fling the younger boy front first onto the pillows. He heard Dan have the wind knocked out of him from the fall, but he couldn’t think too hard about that at the moment. He placed himself so he was sitting on the back of Dan’s thighs and using his arms to pin his shoulders down below them.

“Get the fuck off of me!” Dan yelled, trying to thrash around but not being very successful. His injured arms gave Phil an advantage in their current situation.

“I’ll let you go when you calm down,” Phil said, trying to speak calmly despite being extremely freaked out by the situation.

“Fuck you!”

“You’re just going to hurt yourself if you keep fighting like this.”

“I don’t give a fuck!” he said, continuing to struggling but losing a lot of his effort as the adrenaline drained out of his system, “I don’t care if it fucking kills me; I have to go see him.”

“Dan, you can’t get out of here. And even if you could it’s not safe. You won’t be able to get to him anyways. Please just calm down.”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…” HE said, gradually stopping his thrashing.

After a few minutes he gave up, and Phil got up off of his body. Dan started shaking as he started sobbing into the pillows below them. Phil sat next to him, letting him cry as much as he needed without getting to close. Even though he was so tall and came off so cockily, laying on the cold floor with flat pillows underneath him supporting his broken and mangled arms, Dan looked smaller than Phil had ever seen someone look. He looked small and broken and scared, and Phil had no idea what he could possibly do to help him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI guys! Sorry this update is a bit short. If i made it longer I would have had to either split it in a weird place or make you all wait longer for an update. Comment if you'd like and have a nice day! you're all wonderful! Remember to stay hydrated and take any medication you might need to. I'll see you all in two weeks!


	17. I regret naming the chapters

Dodie and Tyler were huddled close together in a small crevice in what used to be one of the third floor walls. The gauze around Tyler’s head wasn’t doing much to stop the blood dripping out of the gash near his temple, but he didn’t seem like he noticed it. At the moment, they were both focused on the sounds of footsteps echoing down the hallway away from them.

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this,” Dodie whispered when the sound of footsteps faded away.

“Don’t be,” Tyler said, “You had a good plan. None of us could have predicted that Ella had multiple abilities. That’s never even been possible before now.”

“People used to think that having any abilities was impossible, so we probably should have prepared for something like this.”

Tyler snorted, “We should have prepared for a group of teenagers with secret powers trying to take over the world from normal people?” he said sarcastically.

“Now is not the time for your sass mister.”

Footsteps started sounding in the distance and they both stopped speaking again. After a few minutes it was silent again, so Tyler figured it was worth it to risk to speak again.

“I’m worried about Dan,” he whispered.

“I’m sure he’s fine.” Dodie assured, “He’s a really strong kid.”

“He’s impossibly strong, but he’s already carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders all the time. He doesn’t need to deal with anything else.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Can I sit here?”

Louise looked up from the notepad she was doodling on.

“Of course,” she said, scooting over so that the other girl could sit down next to her.

The girl sat down and started picking at her fingernails nervously. The bunker they were in was pretty crowded despite its large size, and the constant sounds over fighting going on above them had almost everyone on edge.

“Don’t worry Hannah,” Louise said, still doodling in her notebook, “It will all be over in a few more hours. We’ll be okay.”

Hannah was a bit shocked that this other girl knew her name, but she figured they probably had a class together before and she just didn’t remember her.

“Thanks for the encouragement,” She said, “but I don’t think it’ll be over that soon.”

Louise shrugged and kept on doodling. After a few minutes she tore out the page she was working on and folded it in half, handing it over to Hannah.

“To make things less scary.”

Hannah unfolded the paper as Louise stood up and walked away. There were dozens of tiny pandas all over the page.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dan finally sat up from where he had been wallowing on the floor, although it was a bit difficult since he’s pretty positive that he broke his hands during his episode earlier. Phil looked up from where he was currently sitting on the bottom bunk across the room.

“Do you need any help?” he asked gently.

“Unless you know how to set bones then no, not really.”

A heavy silence fell between them. Phil played with his fingers awkwardly while Dan stared somewhat angrily at an empty spot in the corner of the room. After a few minutes, Dan mumbled something that Phil couldn’t understand under his breath.

“I’m sorry, what?” Phil asked.

“I said I’m sorry for freaking out,” Dan said, louder this time but still only barely audible over the distant sounds of crashing above them.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Phil said gently, “We’re in a really stressful situation. It’s understandable to have a breakdown.”

Dan smirked at Phil’s attempt to make him feel better. “Thanks.”

Both boys’ stomachs growled in unison after that, and Dan laughed at the timing.

“There’s some food in those cupboards if you’re hungry,” Dan said, nodding his head at the shelves with a few boxes of non-perishable foods inside.

Phil walked over and opened up the cupboards. He ran his fingers over the spines of the small assortment of boxes sitting on the shelves. Nothing really stuck out amongst the choices, making a decision difficult.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked the younger boy, “There’s generic brand cheese crackers, trail mix without any chocolate or candy so what’s the point really, or salt less pretzels?”

“My hands are kind of broken at the moment,” Dan said snarkily, “So unless you want to feed me like some Pharaoh then eating is out of the question at the moment.”

Phil hesitated for a second before grabbing the box of cheese crackers and walking over to plod down in front Dan, who seemed shocked by Phil’s sudden proximity. Phil pulled out a couple of chips and held them out in front of him.

“Open up.”

Dan looked him up and down skeptically.

“Are you serious?”

“Obviously. How else are you going to eat?”

“I can wait dude,” Dan said, “It’s no big deal.”

“Neither is this,” Phil said, holding the cheese crackers closer to Dan’s face.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Dan opened his mouth and let Phil pop a couple of small cheese crackers into his mouth. Dan grimaced slightly at the taste; the crackers had gone stale since they’d been put down in the shelter and the taste wasn’t the best.

“Are they that bad?” Phil asked, smiling at Dan’s admittedly adorable disgusted face.

“I mean I wouldn’t choose them if I had eaten in the last 24 hours or so, but they aren’t too bad.” Dan said semi sarcastically.

“Hopefully we’ll get out of here soon and we can share some pizza rolls or something.”

Dan smiled at the thought of that. Phil was a pretty sweet guy, and being trapped in a small bunker with him for hours makes it hard to want to be a dick to him.

After a few more crackers, Phil’s fingers started getting too close to Dan’s mouth, and the younger boy turned his head away. He had been letting Phil get dangerously close to him lately, and the risk of their skin accidentally touching was way too high at this point. Phil looked confused when his Dan suddenly turned away, but he didn’t mention it.

“You should eat too you know,” Dan brought up when Phil went to put up the cheese crackers.

Phil nodded, but before he could choose a bland snack to fill his stomach with, a crashing sound much louder than any of the earlier ones rang out above them. They both looked up, and a second loud crash sounded, sending tremors through the entire shelter. A small hair width crack appeared on the ceiling when the shaking was over.

“Is that bad?” Phil asked, pointing to the crack above them.

“Yes,” Dan answered, looking worriedly up at the roof, “that it very, very bad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, Hannah in the middle here is Hannah Hoffman and you should totally check her out. I love her. She's happypandaparade on tumblr and her animations are my life. Besides that I'm sorry if this chapter feels weird. The characters didn't want to do what i wanted them to so it feels a bit awkward to me. The next chapter should be better. Comment if you want to and Have a wonderful day! You deserve it! See you in two weeks.


	18. chapter 19

“Ella,” Marina said, grabbing her friend’s arm to get her attention, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“Marina we’ve talked about this,” Ella said, not turning to look at the girl she was talking to but instead focusing on the ball of energy she was conjuring between her hands.

“You said we wouldn’t have to kill anyone,” Marina pressed on anyways, “I don’t want to be a killer. We should just give up now before more people get hurt.”

“If we give up we’ll be locked away forever at best and killed at worst,” she looked up from the power ball she was building momentarily, “and those guys were just an unfortunate accident. Once they realize what they’re up against everyone will surrender and we’ll be in charge. You said you wanted to be a princess, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Marina said, “but I didn’t think it would be like this.”

“This is only temporary,” Ella assured, “soon it’ll be just like we talked about. You’re turning thirteen in a few days, right? Don’t you want to have a big party as the princess of the new world?”

Marina frowned but nodded anyways.

“That’s what I thought. Now, call the others up here. I have a plan for how to deal with the team that the government should be sending in soon.”

Marina nodded and pressed her index fingers into her temples, her eyes growing a deep aquamarine as she telepathically asked the others in the group to meet them immediately.

Marina had been sent to the academy because of her pyrokenesis two years ago, and when she mistakenly got placed into a training class with Ella and six other students in their mid-twenties, she had gradually realized her additional ability of telepathy. Ella, who was at the academy for water manipulation but eventually grew to realize she also has telekinesis, shape shifting, and dodgy mind reading abilities, quickly noticed the younger girl’s hidden power and helped her train secretly without The Academy’s knowledge. Marina was the first other multi-ability person that Ella met, and she still had a soft spot for the rather innocent young girl.

“They’re on their way.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The large crack in the ceiling had been gradually getting larger over the past hour. Phil kept looking to Dan to see how worried he should be about the obviously weakening shelter they were in, but Dan either wasn’t very worried or was doing very well at concealing any worry he had. Then again, he was probably trying to focus on not crying from the pulsing pain in his hands.

His hands had started swelling already and they were gradually turning into a blotchy purple mess. It was almost as uncomfortable to look at as It felt. And to add to horrible fruits of his poor decision making, he had to pee pretty badly, and there is no way he can get any help with that realistically. All he can do is hope that someone comes to get them before he wets his pants.

“Do you want some pain medication?” Phil asked, “I think I saw some in the cabinet over there.”

Dan shook his head.

“Are you sure? It couldn’t hurt, and your hands look pretty bad.”

He shook his head again. “This should be over soon and when someone comes to get us they’ll have something much stronger than whatever is in that cabinet. I can wait.”

Phil still looked like he wanted to push, but he knew it was better to back off. Dan was pretty stubborn after all.

“Thanks for caring though,” Dan half mumbled under his breath.

Phil, not entirely sure what the younger boy said, was going to ask him to repeat himself, but he was cut short when the loudest explosion to sound so far rang out over their heads, shaking the entire bunker and probably what was left of The Academy above them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*

 _What the fuck was that?_ Dan thought to himself, but he didn’t have much time to guess before his question was answered for him.

The gradually widening crack above them final gave out, and the ceiling came down in the form of large chunks of concrete. The two boys, who were both sitting towards the edge of the small room, managed to avoid being crushed by the bigger chunks of falling rock, but the same couldn’t be said about the smaller shards of concrete and large cloud of dust billowing out across the entire space.

The boys both brought up their arms in reaction to try and protect their faces from the blade like shards of rock, but it didn’t do much to help them. Short, deep cuts appeared all over their bodies, and the youngest boy’s bladder finally gave out with the shock of the rock fall on the floor and a warm wet spot started spreading though his pants, although it wasn’t too noticeable in comparison to the hundreds of bleeding cuts that were also seeping a warm wet liquid across his body.

“Are you okay?” Phil asked after the first few seconds of shock passed.

“I’m fucking peachy,” Dan responded.

“Help,” a third voice sounded from somewhere in the room.

Both boys fell silent. If someone else was in the room with them, then they would have had to have fallen through the floor above, and since all of the students were in various safety bunkers underground, whoever fell through is either one of the teachers fighting the rogue students, or one of the rogue students.

“Someone…” the third voice sounded out again from the middle of the room.

Phil looked over to Dan, who shook his head. Whoever was in the rock pile could be unbelievably dangerous, and if they aren’t then there’s nothing they can do for them at the moment anyways. The safest course of action is to stay put and wait for someone to send help.

Phil, understanding what the other boy was thinking, decided to ignore this logic and instead try to help whoever had fallen through their ceiling.

“I’m coming; just stay where you are.”

“Are you _fucking_ stupid?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the awkward stopping point for this chapter. I think the next one is going to be pretty long though, so this is the result. I hope you guys like it, and i'll see you again in two weeks.


	19. Appearently I can't count chapters

“Marco” Phil said again, lifting smaller chunks of rock off of the pile in the area of where he thinks the voice was coming from.

“Polo,” A weak murmur sounded somewhere underneath him.

“If my hands weren’t broken I would slap you for being such a fucking idiot,” Dan said from his place away from the rubble at the edge of the room.

Phil ignored him and continued moving chunks of rock. “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of here and you’re going to be fine.”

“For a few hours until someone catches the rest of your friends. Then you’re going to rot away in prison until you die. And that’s if you’re lucky and they don’t kill you on the spot.” Dan said scarily casually.

“Dan!” Phil said, stopping momentarily. “You don’t even know if they’re one of the bad ones yet. They could be a teacher.”

“Have you heard any explosions since they fell down here?”

Phil hadn’t thought about that, but it doesn’t matter. Whoever is stuck down there is a person, and leaving them to die when he has the chance to help is just the same as killing them himself. He’s not going to do that.

“Marco.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
“Ella can survive anything,” Marina argued, “I’m not leaving her down there. We’re supposed to be a _team_ guys.”

“Marina,” Alexander tried to reason with the young girl, “The amount of concrete between the ground floor and the bunkers is huge. If the fall didn’t kill her then her injuries will. Or she’ll bleed out. Or she’ll suffocate. Or− “

“Alex,” Kana interrupted, “cut to the chase.”

“Right. Look, we can’t save her. And if we stay here trying, all of us are going to be caught. We need to regroup and rebuild. When we have more of us and a better plan then we can try again, but right now we need to get out. It’s been almost half an hour; we _can’t_ wait here anymore.”

“I can still feel her,” Marina said, pointing to her temple, “She’s alive.”

“If you stay here then you’re going to feel her die too,” Kana said as gently as she could.

Marina started crying again, “You can leave but I’m staying here.”

The other members of the group sighed with frustration. None of them were too fond of leaving behind the child of the group right after watching their commander die, but it was starting to look like they had no choice. The fact that they hadn’t gotten caught yet was a miracle and staying here any longer just isn’t worth it.

“Alright guys, let’s move out.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I think I can see you. Just hold on!” Phil said, spotting a small bit of purplish red fabric in a cavity underneath some larger chunks of cement.

The person under the rocks moaned weakly in response.

Dragging the large rocks up was nearly impossible considering how unfit Phil was, but he eventually managed to uncover the person underneath. Trying to grab them as gently as possible, Phil pulled them up out of the hole in the field of rocks and laid them down on one of the flatter spaces amongst them.

Finally getting to see the person that fell through the ceiling, Phil realized that it was Ella. He had seen her around campus a few times and Louise was kind of friends with her. She never seemed like an angry or violent kind of person, and Phil had a hard time imagining her as some sort of terrorist that would try to take over The Academy.

“Ella!” a faint voice called down through the hole in the ceiling.

Both Dan and Phil looked up, but didn’t see anyone in the hole in the ceiling. Granted though, the distance between the ceiling of the bunker was very large for safety reasons, so it wasn’t surprising that they couldn’t see anyone above them.

“Someone should be here really soon,” Phil reassured her, gently placing his hand on her shoulder, “Just hold on for a little bit longer, okay?”

Ella shuddered slightly when he placed his hand on her shoulder, but otherwise didn’t reply.

Dan, who had stayed off to the side up until this point, finally got up and made his way to where the other two were. Phil gave him a look that said something similar to _this is really not the time to be an asshole_ which Dan totally ignored. His pants were still cold and damp from earlier, something Phil chose not to comment on despite obviously noticing, but Dan didn’t seem to care. He had a glint in his eye that looked determined but also slightly off in a way that Phil couldn’t quite name.

“Ella Rainey?” Dan asked, a slight undertone of anger barely audible in his voice.

Ella groaned slightly under Phil’s hand.

“Did you kill Tyler Oakley?”

“ _Dan!_ ” Phil said, “She just fell through tons of concrete. Let the professionals do the questioning.”

“Fuck off,” Phil replied to him, mostly instinctively. “Did you kill Tyler Oakley?”

Ella didn’t reply and, much to Phil’s surprise, Dan slapped the battered girl across the face with his broken, gloved hands. He didn’t even appear fazed by the pain.

“ _DAN!”_

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question bitch,” Dan said, anger now dripping off of his words, “Did you kill Tyler Oakley?”

Ella coughed, spraying a dark coating of blood onto both Phil’s jeans and the rocks beside them.

“I…don’t…who…” She stuttered out. Speaking took so much effort.

“Dan, you need to leave. Go over there or something,” Phil said sternly, pointing vaguely to edge of the room where they younger boy had come from earlier.

“And who’s going to make me? You?” Dan replied snarkily, looking down on the other boy like he was a toddler or something.

“Tyler Oakley. Teacher. Shapeshifter. Changes his hair color pretty much every five seconds. Did you kill him?”

A look of fearful regret passed over Ella’s pained eyes. She made a gurgling sound in the back of her throat before answering.

“It… was… an accident….” She managed to get out.

Dan’s entire form darkened, and before anyone could react he elbowed Phil in the center of his sternum, knocking him backwards and down the rock pile. Despite the gruesome and sadistic nature of the thoughts running through his head, he didn’t want to accidently kill Phil. He was irritating on occasion, but he was a good person; and above anything he was innocent in this situation.

Dan took the gloves off of his mangled hands and laid them against Ella’s neck. Her eyes widened as she felt the life leaking out of her body, and after a few seconds her heartbeat and breathing stilled. Dan let his hand continue to lay on her neck, silently relishing in the almost forgotten sensation of human skin to skin contact.

A shrill scream sounded in the hole above them, and practically out of nowhere a young girl feel down onto the rock pile next to Dan and the corpse. Dan was frozen in place, partially from the shock of a child falling through the ceiling and partially from the revenge driven mindset he was still stewing in. Phil was pretty much the opposite. Holding his chest that was definitely going to have a giant bruise in the center later, he climbed back up the rock pile and put his fingers gently against the young girl’s neck, looking for a pulse. The girl’s heart was definitely beating, and after a few seconds she sat up, feeling dazed from her fall.

“Ella…Ella,” she said, looking around confused before spotting the other girl’s body lying near the top of the pile of concrete she fell onto.

“You need to lay down,” Phil tried to tell her, “You fell a long way and you probably have a concussion or broken ribs.”

“Nonononononononononononono,” The girl said, ignoring Phil completely and crawling over to where her friend was sprawled out.

Dan scooted back out of the way, not wanting to touch the young girl. She placed her hands gently on the sides of Ella’s face, looking into her glassed over eyes.

“No, you can’t leave me like this.” She said, voice cracking with tears, “You’re mine. You can’t just die, Ella. Don’t leave me.”

Dan and Phil both stared at the girls in front of them. Neither boy knew what to do, so they both just stared as the twelve-year-old broke down and sobbed into her friend’s gradually chilling shoulder.

_“Dan!”_

Both boys turned around to see Tyler standing in the now opened doorway to the bunker. His head was wrapped with bandages that were practically soaked with blood, but he was definitely alive and breathing.

“Are you two okay?” Tyler asked frantically, climbing up the mound of broken concrete to where Dan and Phil are.

Halfway up the mound he notices the two girls and shifts his attention to that. He passes by Dan, who looks shell-shocked by his friend’s presence, and kneels down next to the girls. Marina doesn’t even acknowledge his presence, still clutching onto her dead friend.

“What happened here?” he asked, pulling Ella away slightly to check for a pulse.

“She said she killed you,” Dan answered after a moment, his voice low and guilty but audible enough for Tyler to understand.

“Dan, _please_ tell me you didn’t what I think you did.”

Dan looked down guiltily, which was enough of an answer for Tyler.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tyler yelled, but then composed himself. Right now he needs to be a teacher, not Dan’s friend.

“Phil,” he said, turning to face the other boy, “Dodie told me about what you can do. Can you help her?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, “I haven’t tried on a person before. The first time was an accident; I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“Well you’re going to need to try now,” Tyler said, reaching out his hand for Phil to take.

Warily, Phil moved over so he was next to Ella, and he gently put his hand on Marina’s shoulder. “Hey, I think I can help your friend, but I need you to move for a minute, okay?”

Marina loosened her grip on her Ella’s body, and Tyler delicately pulled her away so that Phil could work.

He didn’t exactly know what to do, so he put his hand on her cheek and closed his eyes, focusing on trying to bring life back into her body. Everyone was mostly quiet, excluding Marina who was still crying less than silently next to Tyler, and for a few long moments nothing happened. Tyler sighed, knowing that trying to revive Ella was a long shot anyways, but after a few more seconds, Marina’s head perked up.

“Ella?” she said, crawling back over to her friend, “I can feel her.”

“What?” Dan questioned, moving over to sit next to the rest of the group.

Ella shuddered slightly and, after a few seconds, started breathing shallowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi peeps, I hope you liked this chapter. I was a little iffy on Dan actually killing someone (even just for a little bit) but i think I'm happy with where the story is heading. Also we're finally leaving the bunker! Comment if you'd like to, it always makes my day to read what you think, and I'll see you with another update in two weeks!


	20. Chapter 20

Dan was dreading it, but he knew it was coming. When the government showed up and took Ella and Marina away, a bunch of medical professionals came in and took anyone who needed medical attention into The Academy’s ER. Dan took longer to get looked at considering the fact that he was a risk to any doctors that worked with him but eventually they did get around to him. He had to have a small surgery to reconstruct the bones in his hand and by the time he got out, Tyler was already sitting in his room ready to have a talk.

“How are you feeling?” Tyler asked.

“Like shit, thanks for asking.”

“That’s expected since you broke both of your hands and then tried to kill someone.”

“Wow, Ty,” Dan said, “Don’t sugarcoat it anything.”

“You’re lucky that Dodie let me come after you while they were letting out all of the lower level students. If anyone else had walked in on that you would be chained to this bed heading off to solitary right now.”

“I know,” Dan said defensively.

“I don’t think you do,” Tyler said, using his parent voice now, “You _killed_ a girl, Dan. We’re talking about murder. I should report you for this.”

“You won’t though.”

The look that Tyler gave him made his stomach drop.

“You wouldn’t Ty. Do you know what they would do to me?”

“Yes, I do,” Tyler replied matter of factly, “And quite frankly I’m debating whether or not you deserve it.”

Dan looked shocked, but Tyler kept his stern yet disappointed expression.

“You killed someone, so you definitely need to be punished somehow.”

“They could kill me,” Dan said, sounding small now, “They were considering it when I was younger; now I’m almost an adult. They won’t be as sympathetic this time.”

“I know,” Tyler said, “That’s why I haven’t told anyone yet.”

A tense silence fell between the two of them. Dan couldn’t handle the disappointed look that Tyler kept giving him, so he looked down at his lap.

“I’ve never been this disappointed in you,” Tyler said, “I taught you better than this. I _raised_ you better than this. I feel like I don’t even know you now, because my Dan would never do something like this.”

“I’m sorry,” Dan said, his voice breaking with the effort to hold back the tears threatening to spill out, “I thought I lost you; I couldn’t handle that.”

“That doesn’t make it okay.  I don’t care what the situation is; you don’t kill someone who isn’t actively trying to hurt you or someone else. Ella was barely conscious and practically crippled from that fall. You had no good excuse for what you did.”

Dan continued looking down at his lap, trying to conceal the tears falling down his face against his will. He definitely deserved the scolding he was getting and then some, but fuck does it hurt to have Tyler say all of it.

“I have to go; I’ll call you when I’ve decided on what I’m going to do about this.”

Tyler got up to leave, and Dan tried to hold back from say _I love you_ in a childish voice. Obviously Tyler knows that he loves him and Tyler still loves him too, so saying it right now would just feel too much like a guilt trip. Still, he feels like he needs to say it. He feels like if he does, Tyler won’t think that he’s become some sort of evil monster in just a few days.

But what if that’s what he is now? He used to justify continuing his existence despite the clear curse he’s been stuck with by assuring himself that as long as he never killed someone else then killing himself would be counterproductive to his morals, but now after what he’s done to Ella what reasoning does he have to continue? Obviously he regrets his decision and can’t envision a scenario in which he would voluntarily take someone’s life again, but before the abruptly ended phone call with Tyler in the bunker he couldn’t envision making the decisions that he did either. If he could rationalize hurting someone during a short phase of emotional despair once then who’s to say that he won’t do it again?

He brought his hands up to wipe the tears from his face, forgetting that they were still covered in scratchy cast material. _Of fucking course,_ he thought.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Louise said, sitting down next to Phil in the cafeteria, “If they didn’t open up the cafeteria again by tomorrow I was going to hunt you down in your dorm.”

“I’m kind of surprised that you didn’t already,” Phil commented.

“What can I say, I’m quite fond of you, Phil Lester.”

Phil loves how friendly Louise is. He’s missed her quite a bit over the past couple weeks while The Academy has been being reconstructed.

“I’m quite fond of you too, Louise.”

The two momentarily occupied themselves with eating their respective lunches. Louise grabbed some vegetarian stir fry from the Chinese food booth and Phil opted for chicken barbeque pizza.

“Speaking of people that we’re fond of, where’s Dan?” Louise asked.

Phil’s demeanor sank a bit at the mention of the other boy.

“He’s been in the hospital wing. He broke both of his hands so he’s staying there while he heals.”

“Mhm,” Louise said, swallowing a large bite of stir fry, “have you been visiting him?”

Phil chewed slower on the bite of pizza in his mouth. “No, I haven’t.”

“Why not?” Louise asked innocently.

“Because.”

“Wow, that wasn’t vague or anything,” Louise said sarcastically, “You should go see him. He doesn’t have many people that he’ll put up with and it’s not good for him when he’s left alone with his thought for too long.”

“Why don’t you go see him then?”

“Because he doesn’t like me,” she said, “or more accurately he doesn’t want to like me and it’s just going to exhaust him to pretend like he doesn’t want to see me. You’re different. He doesn’t feel as vulnerable being civil with you.”

Phil wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He didn’t really want Dan to feel more comfortable with him than Louise. After the bunker and the incident with Ella, he’s been terrified of the younger boy. They way that he just sucked the life out of someone who couldn’t even move their own body was distressing to say the least, and the fact that apparently Dan’s ability is _sucking the life out of people’s bodies_ isn’t very comforting either. Unfortunately, he can’t explain any of that since he and Dan aren’t supposed to talk about their abilities to other students for safety reasons.

“He’s not as bad as you think he is,” Louise mentioned when Phil didn’t reply, “He has a hard exterior and a tendency to try and hurt people that want to get close to him, but really he’s one of the most sweet and gentle people that you’ll ever meet.”

 _I beg to differ_ Phil thought to himself.

“I’ll think about it,” he lied.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dan was surprised to see Tyler walk into his hospital room. His hands were out of their casts now and in braces instead, and he was going to be going back to his regular room in a few days so he wasn’t expecting to see the other again until he had to start training again.

“You’re looking better,” Tyler commented, sitting down in the plush chair next to the bed.

“Purple,” Dan responded.

Tyler cracked a small smile, happy to have a bit of their usual banter back. He had been busy lately which had been keeping him from deciding on what he wants to do about the Dan situation, and he had really missed the younger boy during that time.

“So I’ve decided what we’re going to do about you.”

“Are you going to send me off to solitary and have them debate over whether or not my life is worth anything anymore?” Dan said maliciously with a small hint of fear trickling in, barely detectable.

“Nope, but you might wish I was at first,” Tyler responded, “I’m doing what I should have done back when you first got here.”

Dan looked confused for a moment, but then he realized what Tyler was talking about.

“No. I refuse.”

“You can refuse all you want,” Tyler said, “but I’m not changing my mind. You’re starting therapy on Monday.”

“I won’t go,” Dan said defiantly.

“You will, even if I have to drag you against your will every day.”

“ _Every day?”_ Dan exclaimed, “Isn’ t that excessive?”

“Nope, but murder sure is.”

Dan couldn’t rebut that one.

“You’re going to see a therapist, and you’re going to go every day until they decide you don’t need it. However long that takes is up to you. I can’t force you to talk and work through things but I can take you up there every day.”

Dan crossed his arms. “I’d rather talk to you than some random person that gets paid to pretend to feel sorry for me.”

“You need to see a professional; I’m just a teacher.”

“So get a degree or something.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “That would take years, and I should have made you do this years ago. You’re going and that’s final. And get dressed; you’re getting out of here early.”

A completely different wave of anxiety washed over him, and Tyler noticed.

“Don’t worry, I’m not sending you back to your roommate early. You’re going to stay in my room for a few more days. Gotta catch up after all of that time apart, right?”

Dan tried to avoid smiling at that, but he wasn’t very successful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter is finished! I hope you guys like it. I have some big plans for this and i'm really happy that so many of you are reading this story. On a mostly unrelated note, I'm writing essays and things for money now, so if you're in high school or college and don't want to spend time writing an essay when you could pay someone else to do it for you, hit me up at rennabaker@gmail.com. (I'm broke as fudge and i'm saving up for a chest binder so your cheating will be going to a good ish cause.) Besides that I hope all of you have a wonderful life and the next update will be in two weeks (September 17th)


	21. chapter 21

“Who are you here to see?” The kind looking receptionist asked from behind her desk.

“Dan Howell,” Phil answered, tapping his fingers nervously on the hospital wing desk, an unfortunate nervous habit that he’d picked up recently.

The receptionist typed the name into her computer and scanned her screen for a few seconds.

“It looks like you just missed him. Mr. Oakley checked him out earlier today.”

Phil was surprised, and also slightly disappointed, to hear that. He didn’t think that Dan would be leaving the hospital for at least a few more days. Maybe he had misunderstood the voicemail that The Academy sent him a few weeks ago.

“Oh, well, thank you anyways.”

“You’re welcome honey, have a nice day,” the receptionist said sweetly as he left.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I swear, this boy is the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life,” Tyler said from the other end of the couch.

Dan was on his phone only halfway paying attention while Tyler gushes about the most recent guy that he’s fallen for, giving his input wherever necessary. From the way he was talking about the guy, you would think it was the love of his life instead of someone he met at Starbucks for one date and would probably forget about completely in a few weeks.

“I’m sure he’s great, Ty.”

“He’s so much better than great,” Tyler continued, “You know when you like someone and you don’t really know why but you just do and it feel like they make the whole world brighter?’

Dan’s lip quirked up slightly, “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow at the comment, and Dan tried to play off the statement as one of his mindless agreements but the blush rising in his cheeks gave away the lie.

“Ooh,” Tyler said teasingly, “has Danny boy got his first crush? They grow up so fast.”

“Ty, I swear to god I will end you.”

“Feisty,” Tyler commented, “but in all seriousness, I thought you didn’t like people.”

“I never said I don’t like people,” he replied, “I just said that it doesn’t matter. I can’t touch people, so it doesn’t matter if I like certain people or not.”

“Relationships aren’t just physical, Dan,” Tyler said, “they’re emotional too. Even if you’re never able to touch another person, which you will be able to eventually with enough training and patience, you can still have a relationship with someone if you want one.”

Dan snorted.

“Really,” Tyler defended, “I’m sure there are people out there that would jump at a chance to be with you.”

“Maybe,” Dan conceded, “but I doubt I’d be interested in any of them.”

Tyler gave him a look that said _please explain_.

Dan sighed, setting his phone down on the coffee table in front of them and turning so that he was facing Tyler with his legs criss-cross applesauce on the couch.

“When it comes to things like sex and whatever I’m pretty sure I’m polysexual or something because I don’t really like girls but anyone else is nice I guess. But with like, romantic feelings I don’t really like anyone. Except this one person obviously, but they would never be into me. I’m pretty terrible, so only someone really fucked up would put up with this,” he said gesturing to himself.

“I’m gonna jump out on a limb here and say you haven’t asked them how they feel about you, so how can you know that they don’t feel the same way?”

Dan rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually hates me at this point. He’s definitely not interested. Let’s just drop it, okay? Tell me more about this greek god like stud you met at Starbucks.”

Reluctantly, Tyler agreed to the subject change. He knew not to push Dan too much, especially on a topic that is normally so sensitive.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Louise was scribbling aggressively in her notebook, trying to complete the next few months of assignments before the next few weeks were over. If she’s right, then things are going to get very hectic very soon, and Louise is not going to let anything keep her behind in school. She’s due to get her degree next year in psychotherapy and, despite the fact that more than likely she won’t be able to do anything with her degree with how it seems that the universe is moving, she’s not going to waste an extra semester when she can just get everything down now.

“Hey Louise,” someone said from beside her.

She looked up and noticed Hannah Hoffman standing next to her, and the rest of the classroom empty despite being filled for class earlier.

“Class ended about five minutes ago; you seemed pretty focused on what you’re doing so I didn’t think you noticed.”

“Thanks, I zone out a lot.”

Quickly putting her notebook in her bag, Louise left the room with Hannah in tow.

“You know,” Louise brought up, breaking their comfortable silence, “Zoe Sugg is having a party in her room later tonight and I don’t have a date. Would you want to go with me? There’s free food.”

Hannah blushed, not used to being hit on so openly.

“I’ll have to check my schedule; I’ve got a lot of homework due this week, but I’d love to. What’s your number?”

Louise took the other girl’s phone that she was holding out and programmed her number in, adding an alien emoji beside her name. After a small moment of contemplation, she also added a sparkle emoji.

“There you go. Can’t wait to see you later.”

The two split ways at the third floor stairs with Hannah going down and Louise going up. Not long after Louise got a text from Hannah and quickly saved her name in her phone, adding a blue heart and panda emoji. She could already tell things were going to work out great between them, and she can’t wait to tell Phil about the cutie she managed to score for the party later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been super busy these past two weeks, but it's totally worth it because I've finally made enough money to buy a binder! I'm so excited about that. Hopefully these next two weeks will be less hectic, so the next chapter will be better. Some stuff is about to start happening and i'm excited to get to writing it. I hope all of you have a wonderful day, comment if you'd like, and the next update will be on October 1st.


	22. Chapter 22

“Do I really have to go back?” Dan whined, knowing the answer but asking anyways.

“Yes you do,” Tyler said, tired of dealing Dan who had been fighting returning to his own dorm all day, “if I have to deal with you for ten more minutes I’m going to punch you in the face.”

Dan rolled his eyes, but he understood where his friend was coming from since he did practically destroy Tyler’s couch in his sleep somehow. Still, he wasn’t looking forward to seeing Phil again after everything that happened in their bunker. He remembers the fearful and disgusted stares that everyone gave him when he first arrived at The Academy. And back then he was just a little kid who accidently killed his family because he didn’t know what he was doing; he can’t imagine what kind of looks he’s going to get from Phil after what happened.

“You’re going to be fine,” Tyler assured, “now stop being a pussy and go hide in your own bedroom like a real man.”

“That’s sexist,” Dan commented, staring down his doorknob like it might erupt into flames at any moment.

“Probably,” Tyler said, “now get in there before o shove you through the mail slot.”

Dan sighed but didn’t argue. Instead, he tried to suppress his nerves and opened the door.

Phil and Louise were sitting together on the couch when he walked in. Louise was speaking excitedly while scrolling through pictures on her phone, and Phil sat next to her nodding along to whatever she was saying. Dan found it stunningly normal looking considering the three of them are all freak accidents of nature that got shoved together in the same place to protect the rest of the general population. It’s always slightly shocking how everyone is so different from one another and yet completely the same at the same town.

“Hey Dan,” Louise said, bringing him out of his tangential train of thought.

Phil looked up, and his expression changed from one of friendly happiness to one screaming suppressed fear and masked disgust. He was trying to hide what he was feeling, but it still shined through enough for Dan to feel something akin to a punch in the gut from it. Despite the uncomfortable tension in the room though, Louise remained her usual bright and peppy self.

“Look, I went to Zoe’s party last night with the cutest girl ever,” she said, popping off the couch and bringing her phone up for Dan to look at.

“We had so much fun, and we’re having lunch together tomorrow at her dorm after class. Isn’t she so cute?”

“Adorable,” Dan said, not sounding at all like he meant it, but he wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying anyways.

“Where have you been lately?” Phil asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

“I checked out of the hospital early and stayed with Tyler for a few days,” Dan answered simply, no emotion seeping into his reply.

There was a tense few seconds of silence that even Louise couldn’t help but show a bit of discomfort to.

“You look like you need some rest,” Louise said, breaking the silence, “Why don’t you go lie down for a bit. Me and Phil have to go to the library anyways, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” Phil said, playing along.

The two left and Dan made his way back to his room, plopping down on his bed and throwing his stuff into the floor. He felt sick just from that short interaction with his two almost-friend-type-things. This is why he didn’t ever want to care about what people think about him. Caring hurts; that’s the only thing it does. Tyler was the only person he needed in life, so why did he have to fuck up and start caring about other people?

“I need a bath,” he mumbled to himself, grumpily getting up out of bed and walking to his bathroom.

The bathroom was pretty roomy considering it was part of a dorm, but it felt smaller due to all of the clutter in it. Phil always leaves towels all over the place, and if Dan is being honest he doesn’t even know how his roommate manages to leave towels in all of the places he does. Also, both of them have a wide variety of hair products that are also strewn all over the bathroom despite the fact that they only ever use them in front of the mirror, and thanks to Louise’s recommendation there are also constantly multiple bath bombs in a basket beside the tub and on random surfaces all around the room.

Dan decided to take one of Phil’s bath bombs. He already seems disgusted with him anyways, so why not steal one for a bath?

He ran a hot bath and threw in a light pink vanilla bath bomb before hopping in. The bath was soothing, and he sighed thankfully as he sunk down into the water. The bath definitely wouldn’t fix any of his problems, but damn did it make everything feel like it was slipping away at least for a little while.

~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“You don’t have to look like you’re dying when you see him you know,” Louise said as they walked down the hallway the boys’ dorm was on.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Phil replied.

“I know you think I’m airheaded but I’m not as oblivious as you think I am,” she said seriously, “I know why you’re treating him the way you are, but he’s not some sort of evil villain serial killer. Good people do bad things and bad people do good things, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which but I know that Dan is a good person.”

Phil didn’t respond for a while, and the pair walked quietly through the maze of hallways to the library.

“I’m not sure what you think he did, but it’s worse than you think.” Phil muttered as they climbed the stairs.

“I don’t think anything,” she said, “I know. I know everything and anything, just like I know that Dan is a good person and you put your underwear on backwards this morning.”

“My underwear isn’t on backwards,” he commented.

“You might want to check on that,” she replied, suddenly taking a sharp turn and walking into her dorm. Phil blinked, shocked by her sudden departure. When her door closed, Phil looked around to see if anyone else was around before pulling up the waistband of his boxers to check which way they were facing.

They were on backwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this was so late guys. It's been a very hectic few weeks. The next chapter will be up on at the regular time though (October 15th) Have a nice day peeps!


	23. Chapter 23

Dan jolted awake to the sound of a loud knock on the door. He suddenly realized that he was cold, and wet, so he must have fallen asleep in the bath earlier.

“Dan, are you in there?” Phil said from the other side of the door.

“Yeah,” Dan called back, shaking his head to gain his bearings, “I’m just taking a bath.”

“Alright, well Louise and I are sharing a pizza in the kitchen; come get some when you’re done.”

Dan heard him walk away, and decided he should probably get dressed. Hopping out of the bath and letting the water drain, he grabbed a towel and started drying off his cold and shivering body. His hair was curling from the few times he had slipped his head under the water, but he wasn’t in the mood to fix it. Giving his curls one last hateful stare in the mirror, just for moral reasons, he wrapped his towel around his waist and stumbled down the hall to his room.

Getting dressed quickly in his standard black on black on black attire, he readied himself for the awkward encounter that was sure to come in the name of pizza. When he walked into the kitchen Louise was babbling on about something passionately, as she does with everything, and Phil was pretending to listen while devouring his pizza like it was the only thing that mattered in his life.

“Well hello there curly que,” Louise said, shifting from her story to acknowledge Dan without missing a single beat.

“Don’t,” Dan said, slightly threateningly, which made Louise laugh a bit as he sat down.

“You’re adorable when you try to be threatening,” she said, passing him a slice of pizza, “but don’t mind me; just poking a little fun.”

Dan seemed to let it go, which surprised all three of them at the table. Phil finished off his last piece of pizza and mumbled some excuse about needing to do some homework before scurrying off awkwardly to his bedroom. Although he tried to mask it well, Louise could tell that he was a bit disappointed that the other boy was avoiding being near him.

“Don’t worry, he’ll come around,” she said, patting his clothed forearm comfortingly.

“I don’t care,” Dan lied, trying to keep up his stonewall façade while grabbing more pizza.

“Of course you don’t,” she said, “but if hypothetically you _did_ care,” she continued in an exaggerated voice, “that would be understandable and far from weak or anything. Everyone has people that they care about, and it hurts to be rejected, especially if you know you did something wrong.”

Dan rolled his eyes, but secretly he was glad that he had Louise.

The two silently ate their pizza for a few more minutes, quietly enjoying each other’s company, when the overhead PA system loudly turned on. Dan looked up a bit confused since most announcements that weren’t urgent were sent out over email now, and most kinds of emergencies had specific alarms set up already. Louise on the other hand didn’t seem at all shocked by this.

“Attention students and faculty,” a gruff masculine voice boomed loudly over the ceiling speakers, “Due to recent events regarding the safety of The Academy, all students and faculty members will be required to undergo inspections regarding their abilities. A list will be sent out shortly with information regarding schedule times for inspections as well as room locations and instructors to report to. Anyone who does not report to inspections at the appropriate time, regardless of reasons, will be tracked down and put in solitary for a minimum twenty-four hours until an inspection can be done. In addition, all classes excluding required level four and five training has been cancelled for the rest of the week. We are sorry for any inconvenience.”

The speaker crackled off, and a brief silence followed while Dan tried to put together what exactly just happened.

“What the fuck?” he said rather loudly, looking up accusingly at the speakers on the ceiling, I don’t even− what the _fuck?”_

“They don’t want to have another uprising, so they want to see if there are any other people with multiple abilities hiding out here.” Louise said, lacking her usual bubbliness.

“No one else has multiple abilities,” Dan said confidently, “If anyone else did they would have been in with the others. And canceling classes? Solitary? That’s way too extreme. They can’t do this.”

“They can do whatever they want really,” Louise commented, “The Academy isn’t that big population wise, and although Principal Dodie is technically in charge of everything, she still has to listen to the government since that’s how we get funding. Realistically if the school seems like it’s harboring more potential for danger than possible good then they can just shut the entire program down and start putting us back in jail to keep normal people ‘safe.’” She put air quotes around the word safe.

Dan huffed, she had a point.

“That doesn’t change the fact that obviously no one else has multiple abilities. If they did, they would have been part of the uprising. Abilities are rare enough themselves, but having multiple? There aren’t any left.”

“Unless there were more who just didn’t know about Ella and the others, or they did know and just didn’t want to get behind the whole world domination idea. People used to think that any abilities like the ones we have were impossible, but look where we are now. Really if someone’s mind or body can mutate to create flames or control minds or shrink to the size of a grain of rice, wouldn’t it be likely that they can have minor mutations that appear in other ways?”

Dan shot his friend a strange look, “You sound like you know something I don’t.”

Louise smiled, “I’ve told you many times Dan, I know everything; even things that don’t and won’t exist.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he commented.

“It will,” she said, getting up to leave suddenly like she does far too often, “or maybe it won’t, but that kind of proves my point.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting back into some drama now, I hope you guys are ready for far too many cliffhangers coming up. I plan on getting really involved with Louise in these next few chapters, so get excited about that. Comment if you like, because it really motivates me to keep writing and i'm an attention whore who thrives on validation (in a good way?) The next chapter will be up in two weeks on October 29th, and I hope you all have a wonderful day :)


	24. Chapter 24

“Hi there,” a voice said from behind Phil, startling him, “come here often?”

Phil turned his head around to see a rather attractive guy in his mid-twenties hovering a bit behind him. Phil was sitting out in the gardens with a book since classes were cancelled for the time being and he didn’t want to stay in his room with Dan the whole time, since he was still uneasy about the whole thing even though Dan seemed to be acting normally if not a bit more aloof than usual. A large portion of the other students apparently had the same idea as the usually quite empty area was buzzing with people.

“Oh, um, not really,” Phil stuttered out, “I normally stay cooped up in my room honestly.”

“Same,” the attractive guy agreed, “May I sit?” he asked, gesturing to the place next to Phil.

“Sure,” Phil said, moving over invitingly.

“I’m Adam.”

“Phil.”

“What book are you reading?” Adam asked conversationally.

“Frankenstein,” Phil said, holding up the cover for the other man to see, “I’m such a nerd for saying this but it’s probably one of my favorites.”

“It might be nerdy but it’s certainly not a bad thing,” Adam commented, “I’m a pretty big fan of the novel myself. I wrote my senior thesis on it actually.”

“Oh really?” Phil said, curiously.

“Really” Adam commented, “I was always extremely interested with the monster. Sure he did some horrible things, but can we really blame him? Being brought into the world not of his own will and immediately being persecuted for his own existence by the one who brought him to life. He tried so hard to be good and prove that he wasn’t such a monster, only to have what little he had taken away from him. Is it any surprise that he became a revenge driven killer in the end? Considering his circumstances, it’s rather admirable that he didn’t end up worse.”

Phil looked at the other man shocked, not expecting such a detailed answer that left him feeling a strange sort of guilt low in his chest. Adam noticed the change in atmosphere, and laughed awkwardly to ease the tension.

“Sorry, I didn’t really plan on flirting via character analysis when I came over here,” he said, “but I guess I was never really smooth to begin with.”

“Oh,” Phil said, suddenly realizing that the ‘come here often’ used as ironically as he thought, “I’m not really single.”

Technically that was a lie, but something about calling himself available just didn’t feel quite right. It was nothing against Adam, a nerdy guy that can talk character analysis on the fly that looks like _that_ certainly isn’t the worst that Phil could do; but for some reason it felt wrong to consider any sort of dating at the moment. Like cheating without someone to actually cheat on somehow.

“Worth a shot,” Adam said, not sounding too bothered, “I figured a cutie like you was probably taken already. If that ever changes though, give me a call.”

Adam left before Phil could mention that he didn’t give him his number, although he probably wouldn’t use it anyways. It took him nearly twenty more minutes to realize that there was a phone number subtly burned into the grass in front of the spot where he was sitting.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There was one thing that Dan liked about this sudden multi-ability witch hunt going on, and that was that Phil wanted to spend his regular class times outside of their dorm, so Dan could lounge around their shared bedroom in his boxer briefs with no worries about anyone seeing him or accidentally touching his normally unexposed skin. He’s not sure what it is about laying around in one’s underwear with no one else around that feels so universally liberating, but he definitely loves it whatever the reason is. He had To Kill a Mockingbird open and a steaming hot mug of coffee cooling down to a bearable temperature beside him; this was probably the most relaxed he had felt in a whi−

“Hi Dan,” Louise said, suddenly standing in his bedroom doorway casually like she didn’t just break into his dorm.

“ _Jesus on a fucking tricycle_ ,” he exclaimed, flailing around for his blankets as he frantically tried to cover his bare nipples, “How did you even get in here?”

“Unimportant,” she said, sitting down on Phil’s bed, “I need to talk to you. And would you chill with the blankets; it’s not like you’re going to be unfit to marry if I see your naked nipples. This isn't the 1600’s babe.”

“Don’t call me babe,” he said, grabbing a sweater from his floor and pulling it on hastily, “and don’t comment on the state of my nipples. You wouldn’t want me to break into your room while your nipples are out either.”

“I wouldn’t mind really, but I guess that’s because you have already, even though you haven’t, so I will have had already gotten used to it.”

Dan rolled his eyes, “Nothing about that sentence makes any sense.”

“You’ll probably understand in a few minutes,” she assured, taking a deep breath to prepare for the long explanation coming up.

She paused for a few seconds before sighing loudly in frustration.

“Wow, that was very enlightening,” Dan said sarcastically.

Louise glared at him before starting again.

“I don’t really know how to start this, so I’m just going to wing it. I’m supposed to be at inspections right now, so I’m going to be in solitary soon. When they finally get around to testing me in a few weeks Tyler and Dodie are going to be in charge of me. I need you to convince them that I’m not a threat so that they’ll let me go and we can get everyone else out before the military gets involved, because that time line is dark and−“

“Slow down, what about the military? Why aren’t you at inspections?”

Louise rubbed her temples.

“I’m not at inspections because if I was, then all of this would fall apart. No one knows about it yet, probably not even the people who are going to plan it, but the government isn’t going to risk any more people with multiple powers running around freely after the last incident. They’re going to put us in camps to try and protect everyone else and as soon as the first thing goes wrong they’re going to execute us and no one is going to know about it.”

“That’s insane,” he said, “You’re talking about a small scale holocaust. These inspections aren’t good but they can’t possibly be that bad−“ he paused momentarily, thinking, “You said we. Do you have another ability?”

She looked relieved that he was finally getting it. “Most of the students here do, but when it comes to people like you or Phil or Tyler they just group them together as the same power. Other people who have more contrasting abilities are the ones at risk right now though.”

“How do you know all of this? And what else can you do?” he sounded particularly concerned now.

“Well, to answer both of those questions, I know everything. I can see the past, present, and future, but not just our past, present, and future; all of them. There are Universes where Hitler never existed, and there are universes where even worse people have. There are universes where the two of us are married and there are universes where we never meet or even exist. There’s an infinite number of universes and honestly I’m never entirely sure which one I’m in because for all of the infinite number of universe where this exact conversation doesn’t happen, there’s also a smaller infinite number of universes where it does, and this one could be any one of those. Are you following so far?”

“…kinda?”

“Okay, well even though there’s an infinite number of ways for this universe to go, some of the possibilities are more likely than others. Right now, the two biggest possibilities are either you help me get out of this so that I can convince the government and everyone else that having multiple powers doesn’t inherently make someone a power-hungry murderer, or you don’t and we end up seeing the beginning of a relapse into the idea that people with powers should be executed because they’re too dangerous.”

Dan took a moment to take in all this information.

“You realize you sound insane, right?” he said finally.

“I know, but maybe this will help convince you. You had a dog named Colin when you were younger, and when you were playing fetch when you were six you accidentally through the ball in the road and he got hit by a car. You never told anyone about it but you had nightmares about it all the way up until, well, you know…” she trailed off.

He knew exactly what she meant. He had felt so guilty about Colin that he thought he would never get over it. Really he still hasn’t, but killing his family later that year made him fell substantially worse than accidentally killing his dog did.

“Why am I involved in all of this then?” he asked, not seeing a way for her to know about both his dog and his abilities without having some level of omnipotence, “We’re barely friends and I don’t even care about most people. Shouldn’t someone else be the center of your plan or whatever?”

“The universe rarely makes sense, Dan. I just know that you’re the puzzle piece that changes the whole picture and I need you to back me up here.”

The loud crackly speakers overhead buzzed to life again, and Louise’s face darkened, knowing the announcement that would be coming even without her ability.

“Louise Pentland, come to the office immediately. Louise Pentland, come to the front office immediately.”

“I have to go soon before they start storming around looking for me. Just remember what I told you. And if Hannah comes to you asking questions, you don’t know anything, okay? I’ll have to explain everything to her myself and there’s no time at the moment.”

“Alright, I’ll do my best. But before you go−“

“Yes you can tell Phil; I highly advise it actually, yes aliens exist, no you won’t ever live to see them or their discovery, and as far as the additional abilities you have, I can’t tell you about them but if you think it through long enough you’ll figure most of them out yourself,” She said, answering his questions that she knew were coming as she started to leave.

“Stay safe, okay?” he said as she walked out the door.

She simply smiled at him and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully now Louise's kinda strange character makes more sense. I hope you guys liked this! Next update is in two weeks on November 12, but i have multiple essays due in these next two weeks and i've started a new medication for bipolar disorder that's made me a bit more unstable than usual, so it could be a day or two late. I'll try my best to have it out on time though. Comment if you'd like, i love reading what you all have to say, and have a wonderful day. Also happy halloween since that's right around the corner:)


	25. Chapter 25

“I don’t like this Dodie,” Tyler said, leaning against her desk, “I know there’s a safety risk and everything but solitary is harsh. Louise is the only one to miss it so far, can’t I just inspect her in my off hours? She’s always been a bit strange; she probably just got caught up looking at flowers or something.”

“Trust me, I hate this whole thing too, but I have to follow the rules. The agents that were sent here made it _very_ clear that if we don’t follow the rules, we can be arrested for treason.”

“That’s excessive and fucked up too,” he sighed, “I hate this. I’m not a rule following person; I don’t know why I became a teacher.”

“For the same reason I did; we didn’t really have many options that didn’t involve murder.”

Tyler chuckled darkly.

“I should have gone into government. We should have more options than joining special ops military or permanently living in a glorified prison school until we die.”

“You’re being a bit pessimistic,” Dodie said, “At least we can leave sometimes; it’s better than nothing.”

“Better than nothing isn’t the same as good. We can’t even get married to non-gifted people, and even if we could they wouldn’t let us go buy a house and raise a family. We would have to stay here for the rest of our lives. I get the whole ‘potential danger’ thing, but I don’t even get a chance to live normally. I didn’t choose this, so why am I being punished?”

“Don’t work yourself up Ty,” Dodie said, “Now is probably the worst time to be loudly fighting the system. Sometimes we just have to do the best with the cards we were dealt.”

“If people didn’t fight then the country would still be segregated, women wouldn’t be allowed to vote, and our people wouldn’t be allowed to marry.”

“And all of those movements took lots of time and peaceful protesting to come about too. When the system is rigged, you have to work with it to fix it, otherwise you’ll just get torn down in the process and nothing will ever get fixed.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. He agreed with her point but he was still angry about it none the less.

“Why don’t you take a day off tomorrow. I don’t have much to do so I can take over your inspections. Spend the day with Dan or something; he’s probably been missing you if he only sees you in the shortened training schedules we have now.”

“Thanks Dodie,” Tyler said sincerely.

“No problem,” she replied, “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a mountain of paperwork to sort through.”

As she was speaking two stacks of papers floated from the top of a file cabinet behind her onto her desk, and a ballpoint pen flew out of her one of her desk drawers and started scribbling on the top page of one stack while she got to work filling out the other pile.

“I still don’t see how you can do two things at once,” Tyler commented as he stood to leave, “I can’t even write my name without having to look at it in front of me.”

“Years of practice and impending deadlines can do some magical things let me tell you,” She stated as he walked out the door.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Do you know where Louise is?” Phil asked as soon as he walked through the door to their dorm room.

Dan was caught a bit off guard by Phil walking in so suddenly since he’s been trying to avoid him as much as he can without being too obvious about lately. Dan was a bit happy that Phil wasn’t acting like he had the plague or something at the moment, but with the conversation they were about to have it probably wouldn’t last very long.

“Either in solitary already or waiting to be put in,” he answered, moving from his seat in the middle of the couch to the far end in case the other boy wanted to sit to talk, “She skipped her inspection time.”

“What? Why? How do you know this?” Phil asked, standing at the other edge of the couch without sitting.

“It’s a bit complicated,” Dan started, “I’m not even entirely sure how to explain it.”

Dan paused for a moment trying to figure out how he wanted to explain what was going on. Surely he couldn’t just tell Phil everything and expect him to just accept it and understand. Dan barely understood it too, and if Louise hadn’t of brought up the dog story, he wouldn’t really have accepted it earlier either.

“She has two powers,” he started, “and she wants to buy time until I can convince Tyler that she’s not dangerous so he’ll lie about the results of her inspection when they do eventually get around to her.”

“Louise has a second power?” Phil said quizzically, “What is it?”

“I don’t think I can answer that question,” Dan replied, “It’s really complicated and hard to explain. Plus it sounds fake; If she didn’t show me I wouldn’t have believed it was possible.”

“What could be so bad she would go to _solitary_ for it?” Phil asked, “Solitary confinement is border line torture in prison, surely it’s not much different here.”

“The cells are slightly bigger here but it’s still pretty bad.” Dan commented, “but if they find out about what she can do it’ll be a lot worse.”

Phil shook his head, trying to comprehend what was going on.

“Surely it wouldn’t be that bad. As long as it’s not too dangerous it should be fine, right? She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, won’t they just let her go if she’s not a threat? They keep you here like the rest of us and you kill people with your ability. Having two powers can’t be worse than that.”

 _Well that was a low blow_ Dan thought, but he chose not to address it. He probably deserved that anyways.

“No one thought Ella was dangerous either, and then look what happened. The Academy is ultimately run by the government, and if they think something like that could happen again then they’ll do anything to stop it. Gifted people are a big minority and if they really feel threatened they could wipe all of us out without much backlash from the rest of the country. It might not be that dangerous if someone has multiple powers, but if they think it could be then they can do whatever they want.”

Phil was a bit speechless for a moment.

“That’s not fair.”

“I know,” he said, refraining from saying something like _life’s not fair_ like he normally would. “That’s why I’m going to help her get out of it.”

Phil sighed

“This place is supposed to be a school, not a prison,” he said sadly, “They shouldn’t be able to treat us like this; we’re human too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked the chapter. Next one should be up on November 26th. Comment if you want, I love reading what you have to think, and have a nice day! And remember, life is full of some really terrible things and circumstances, but there's also a lot of good things too. Try to search for the good things.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, there's some minor self harm in this chapter. Watch out for that if that's a trigger or anything for you.

Dan loves Tyler to death, but sometimes it’s hard to focus on what he’s saying when he starts blabbing on and on about something that Dan couldn’t care less about. In this case, Dan was zoned out eating teriyaki chicken in the cafeteria while Tyler droned on about the ins and outs of all the paperwork that teachers have to fill out while working at the academy.

“And you aren’t even listening anymore, are you” Tyler said in the middle of his previous sentence.

“What, no, I’m listening,” Dan said, “something about… something.”

Tyler rolled his eyes, “Well that was convincing.”

He playfully threw a French fry at Dan’s face, “In the future if you want to pretend you’re listening to someone you shouldn’t stare off into space with that resting bitch face you have going on.”

“Hey, my face always looks like this.”

“Yeah it does.”

Dan pretended to look offended and was about to make some sort of response when suddenly an alarm sounded, and the soft white lights overhead shut off and shifted to harsh flashing red ones.

Tyler immediately shot up out of his chair to look around. Everyone in the room seemed confused for just a few moments before the doors on the bottom floor burst open and a girl with pink hair started sprinting through the crowd that was parting in fear around her to the doors on the other end of the cafeteria. A few seconds after she burst through the doors, although to everyone in the room it felt like much longer, a group of security guards in their black suit uniforms followed yelling at anyone that was listening to stop her.

No one made any move to stop her, clearly too terrified by the confusing situation to do anything. She almost made it to the other set of doors, but as she was hopping over a table to get to it because of all the people one of the security guards pulled out what must have been a taser and shot her in the back. Her body went rigid and fell straight down, hitting the table she was trying to jump over on the way down. Garbled sounds that were probably supposed to be a cry for help were coming out of her mouth but no one made any move to try and help her; not that there was really much that anyone could do anyways.

There was a long thirty seconds that passed before the electricity from the taser stopped shooting through her body and her rigid form fell limp on the ground that she was laying on. Two of the guards moved forward to pick her up off of the floor and carried her out of the doors that she was trying so desperately to reach while the rest started relaying orders via Bluetooth while leaving the stunned cafeteria like nothing happened. After a few seconds the alarm stopped shrieking and the lights went back to normal, and then the entire room erupted into frenzied talking with students rushing in every direction.

“Shit,” Tyler muttered to himself before pulling his phone out of his pocket and clicking on Dodie’s name.

“Put me on the cafeteria intercom,” he said, getting straight to the point.

Dodie gave a short affirmation before redirecting the call to the speakers in the cafeteria section of the building.

“Attention students, the cafeteria is closed. Please exit in an orderly fashion and report to your dorms until further notice.”

“You’re evacuating the cafeteria?” Dan said, moving to the railing to look down at the crowd of people below now moving out all of the doors like ants running out of a damaged ant hill.

“Just until we know what’s going on,” Tyler said, also watching everyone leave, “They shouldn’t be using tasers indoors. She could have died falling off of that table when they shot her, and there are so many people in here they could have missed and hit someone else easily.”

“I know her,” Dan said, moving so that he’s standing closer to Tyler, “Connie Glynn. She came here three years ago; she’s only sixteen.”

“I know,” Tyler said, “She freezes things by moving the heat energy to her hands. From what her teachers have told me she wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

They watched everyone leave in a somber silence. They didn’t know what was going on, but they were both positive that it was something bad.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“How is she?” Tyler asked, moving over for Dodie to sit down beside him on his couch.

“Stable but not great. She hit her head pretty hard on the way down, and she still hadn’t woken up when I left.”

“And the guys who _tased a child_ in the cafeteria?”

“Fired, but I doubt their replacements will be any better.”

Tyler sighed, exasperated, “You know I’ve been here for a while and the academy isn’t the most fair place in the world, but it’s never been this terrible here. This is supposed to be a _school._ The whole reason it exists is to help people, to teach people, to keep people safe. The students are terrified after all the things that have been happening.”

“I know,” she said, “but you have to remember how dangerous we all are. I could fling an army off a cliff by myself if I wanted to. They have reason to worry about the safety of others.”

“Yes, but you wouldn’t kill people for no reason. And a normal person could people just as easily as you with an automatic weapon, and they barely have any safety regulations on those. Yes, some of us are dangerous, but we’re still human.”

A knock on the door sounded before Dodie could say anything back. Tyler yelled that the door was open, and a slightly nervous looking Dan walked in.

“Hey Ty, can I talk to you about something?” he asked, playing with the ends of the sleeves on his jacket.

“Of course,” Tyler said, patting the space beside him for Dan to sit down.

Dan looked at Dodie sitting on the other side of the spot Tyler was offering him. She picked up on the fact that he didn’t really want her there for their conversation, so she made an excuse to leave and told Tyler goodbye before quickly scuttling out the door.

“So, what’s on your mind?” Tyler asked as Dan sat down on the couch.

“How do you feel about what’s been going on lately, with all of the inspections and the thing with Louise and the thing with Connie and everything?”

Tyler sighed, “I don’t like it, but we have to deal with it; we can’t do anything to stop it. In a couple of months this will all be over and everything will go back to normal.”

“But what if it doesn’t,” Dan countered, “What if things never go back to normal but they just keep getting worse… and what if we could do something to stop it?”

“Oh god,” Tyler said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “What did you do?”

“Don’t freak out− “

“That’s what you say when you’ve done something stupid.”

“Just hear me out, okay? Things aren’t going to be better in a few months; it’s just going to get worse. A lot worse.”

“Dan, you don’t know that.”

“But I _do_ know! Remember Louise? She can do more than just shapeshift. She can see the future, kind of at least, and she told me about it. If no one does anything then we’re going to revert back to what it was like when people like us were thrown in prison or killed to keep everyone else safe− “

“Dan,” Tyler interrupted, “I need you to slow down and think about what you’re saying.”

“I know what I’m saying! Everything is going to keep getting worse unless someone stops it. I’m not going to do anything stupid; I just need you to hear me out here. You and Dodie are doing inspections for Louise tomorrow, right? Just listen to her, okay? You’ll know that she’s not lying. Just ask her about what she told me.”

“I can listen to whatever she has to say, but there’s no way to prove she isn’t making things up. Seeing the future isn’t possible anyways, and if it was then we would have to turn her in to the government. We don’t have any choice in these matters. You know that.”

“You can lie,” Dan said, “You’ve lied for me plenty of times.”

“This is different. I know she’s your friend and you don’t have many of those, but I can’t just ignore the rules whenever I don’t like them. And unlike me, Dodie doesn’t have the soft spot for you like I do. Even if I didn’t report something she would.”

“Just consider it when you talk to her.”

“Dan, I’ll do what I can, but if your friend does have more than one ability I have to report it.”

Dan huffed, but gave up on arguing, hoping that when Tyler and Dodie actually talk to Louise they’ll understand the situation better. If she could convince Dan she’s telling the truth, then she can convince the two of them too.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are you coming to dinner?” Phil asked, leaning his head into their shared bedroom.

“Is the cafeteria open again?” Dan asked, looking up from the book he was reading.

“Yeah, they opened it back up about an hour ago.”

“No thanks, I’m not hungry,” Dan said, looking back down at his book.

“Are you sure? I can bring you back some pizza or something if you want.”

“No thanks,” Dan said, mumbling slightly as he lost interest in the conversation.

“Alright, I’ll be back later then,” Phil said, closing the door behind him as he left.

Dan waited until he heard the other boy’s footsteps fade away to silence before setting down the book he was reading on the ground and walking over to his closet. He had snuck into his training room after his talk with Tyler earlier and snuck a tiny cactus out. After his talk with Louise, he started remembering somethings that he had spent a while trying to forget, and he needed to know if they were real or not.

He sat back down on his bed, placing the plant in front of him. Carefully taking his gloves off and placing them beside him on the bed, he leaned over and pulled out a small shard of glass from a glass he broke earlier on the floor. Holding it carefully, he pressed it into the side of one of his fingers just hard enough to draw a bit of blood.

“I’m sorry,” he said to the plant before gently touching in between two spines, making the cactus immediately start wilting away.

Looking down at his finger, he sighed. The small wound began closing up and disappearing as quickly as the cactus died. By the time the plant was completely dead, his finger barely looked scratched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is the 26th chapter and the boys' relationship hasn't progressed too much yet but i promise it's coming. There's just a lot of plot and social commentary and unnecessary amounts of symbolism clogging up all of the gay that's coming. And side note, thanks for dealing with this story. I kind of hate my own writing/writing style so i really appreciate all of you supporting my rather cringey attempts to make a story. Anyways, the next chapter will be out in two weeks on December 10th. Comment if you'd like; reading your comments always makes my day, and have a wonderful day everyone!


	27. Chapter 27

Dan’s honestly kind of surprised that he didn’t notice it sooner. When he was little he would get scrapes and bruises just like any other kid and he would heal at pretty much the same rate as everyone else, but after his ability developed things had been different. He wasn’t exactly the least clumsy person on the planet, and whenever he inevitably knocked into something or tripped down the unfortunate number of stairs going to and from class any cuts or bruises he developed were usually gone within about a day. The only real time he took a normal amount of time to heal was after he broke his hands in the bunker and didn’t go to training during his recovery, and even that had been sped up a bit, more than likely because of what he drained out of Ella.

It would have been so obvious If he had just thought to look for it, but he’d never considered the possibility that he could do anything other than just suck the life from things. The fact that he never managed to stay injured for very long just seemed like a coincidence; nothing important enough to spend time pondering over.

He was even more surprised that Tyler and everyone else never noticed. A bit of his own ignorance to what was going on could be attributed to not knowing any different. After all, he never really cared enough to notice if anyone else was hurt and how long it took them to heal. Considering it now, he doesn’t really know how long a bruise or a cut would take to heal on a normal person. But Tyler would know. He would be able to see that there was something different about Dan, and eventually put two and two together.

The thought that Special people are limited to one ability with strict limits left people so blind that they never noticed the things that were clearly in front of their faces. Dan’s newfound healing is pretty connected to his main power, so it makes more sense to ignore it, but even Louise’s drastically different abilities were pretty obvious when one thinks to look. People with multiple abilities can’t be nearly as big a danger as the narrow sightedness that everyone else tries to see the world through.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Phil had spent almost ten minutes looking around for an empty table in the cafeteria, and he was nearly ready to just sit on the floor to eat his tacos. Without Dan or Louise, he didn’t really have anyone that he was close enough to to share a table with, which was proving to be a bit of a problem as of late. Just before deciding to give up and spend his dinner time cursing himself for not making more friends here, he spots a table with only one girl sitting at it, poking peas around her plate sadly. Phil vaguely remembers her as Louise’s girlfriend Hannah and figures she’s probably the best person to eat with considering his options.

“Is this seat taken?” he asks, motioning to the seat across from her.

She looks up a bit startled and shakes her head.

He sits down and starts eating his tacos, trying to ignore the slightly uncomfortable silence between them. After a few minutes, Hannah looks up again and squints a bit.

“Are you Phil?” She asks.

“Yeah,” Phil says, trying to swallow the bite of taco in his mouth as quickly as he can so he doesn’t spit any food on the poor girl, “I’m guessing Louise told you about me.”

“Yeah she talks about you a lot…”

She trailed off for a moment, anxiously shuffling her peas.

“Do you know why she didn’t go to inspections? I know she has her head in the clouds a lot but surely she didn’t just miss it by accident.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t really know,” he lied.

She sighed dejectedly and pushed her plate away. Phil felt bad for her; it must hurt having your girlfriend disappear without much warning. If Phil was in her place he would feel pretty somber too.

“I think they’re doing her inspections tomorrow though,” he said, trying to raise the girl’s spirits, “so she’ll be back in just a few days.”

“If they let her come back,” Hannah mumbled to herself, loud enough that Phil could still barely hear the comment over the background noise.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hello,” Louise said politely as she was escorted into her inspection room.

Dan and Tyler’s training room was being used for her inspection since her room in solitary, which was where the government group in charge of all of this originally wanted her inspection done, was far too small for three people to fit in at the same time. Dodie made note of the terribly small size of the room, deciding they should renovate and make them at least a little bigger. Solitary was supposed to be a punishment, but there’s definitely a problem if a person can barely lie down on the floor without touching two parallel walls.

“Hello Louise,” Dodie responded, “Please sit.”

Louise sat down in a basic metal chair that was set up across from Tyler and Dodie’s rolling desk chairs. The agents who escorted her in looked less than pleased at the casualness of the setup, but the three ignored their apparent distaste.

“You two can leave,” Dodie said to them, waving a hand towards the door, “We’re more than qualified to do this without the two of you getting in the way.”

Tyler laughed slightly but quickly turned it into a cough as the two men in suits somewhat reluctantly left the room.

“Has Dan spoken to you,” Louise asked Tyler directly as soon as the door shut.

“Spoken to you about what?” Dodie asked, angling her chair a bit more in his direction.

“Nothing,” Tyler said, quickly changing the subject, “So according to your file you’re registered her as a shapeshifter, is that correct?”

~*~*~*~**~*~**~*~

“So what are we going to do?” Tyler asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t know,” Dodie said, “We can’t just not report it, but clearly we can’t report it either.”

“It wouldn’t be that hard to lie on the reports. We just have to make sure our stories match.”

“Yes, but then what? If things work out like she says, then eventually people are going to realize that we lied. What’s going to happen if we get fired? We can’t let the people who think it’s okay to treat the students like lesser humans take our places.”

“It’s going to happen eventually anyways. They don’t want special people being in charge anymore. If we did report her then we would just be buying a few more months before we all get fired anyways.”

She sighed, “There’s always the chance that she could be wrong about all of this.”

“Do you really want to take that risk?”

“No,” she said, “I just wish we had better options.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when i was trying to write the entire conversation with Louise, Tyler, and Dodie, the whole thing got really long and it felt really awkward, so in the interest of time i decided to leave it out for now and sort of leave things up to your imagination. I'm (probably) going to be taking a semester off from college, so hopefully I'll have more time and i'll be able to add it in as like a bonus one shot later. (There are a couple of scenes that I'm thinking about doing that with actually.)  
> Anyways, I hope you didn't hate it. Leave a comment if you'd like, i love reading what you think, and have a nice day!  
> Edit: I forgot to put when the next upload is. Next chapter will be up in two weeks on December 24th


	28. Chapter 28

When Phil asked Dan if he wanted to go down to the gardens for a little bit before dinner, he hadn’t really wanted to go, but a small yet loud part of him wanted to spend more time with Phil since the tension that had been between them since the incident in the bunker had been dying down recently, so he said yes. It didn’t take long for him to regret that decision though, as not even halfway through the halls leading to their destination a foot popped out of nowhere tripping him and making him faceplant on the cold hard linoleum floor.

“You should watch where you’re walking, faggot,” Caine said, popping out from around the corner he was standing behind.

“Don’t you have anything else to do you insufferable prick,” Dan mumbled as he got up from the floor.

“What was that?” Caine said tauntingly, shoving Dan while he’s still a bit off balance from standing up.

“Leave him alone,” Phil said.

Caine turned towards him and grinned disconcertingly, giving Phil about half a second to regret saying anything before a sudden wave of terror washed over him. His heart began racing and his breathing quickened before his knees buckled under him and he fell to the ground, curling up into a ball.

Dan stood up and scanned the area quickly, hoping that a teacher or someone with authority would be walking around, but when he saw none he thought quickly and kicked Caine in the back of his knees, sending him crumpling to the ground.

Phil gasped as the fear that was suffocating him dispersed.

“You’re gonna pay for that,” Caine said, getting up from the ground.

“What are you gonna do, try to make me kill myself again? You failed at that last−“

Clearly, he remembered that because instead of trying an emotional attack, he tackled the other boy to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

Dan was dazed for a moment, but he came to his senses quick enough to bring up his arm to block the punch that was about to land on his face. He couldn’t let Caine hit him in the face. Even if it’s only for a few punches it could be really dangerous, and although he hates the guy he doesn’t want to slowly drain the life out of him.

“Hey,” someone called from down the hall, “What are you doing?”

Dan heard footsteps moving towards him, and Caine quickly got off of him and started running down the hall in the opposite direction. Standing up, he noticed the person who was walking towards them earlier, and now is running after Caine, was one of the new security guards that had been constantly patrolling around the school recently. Unfortunately for the guard, who was in admittedly above average athletic condition, Caine was a really fast guy, likely due to constantly running away from authority figures with all of the mischief he gets himself into.

“Are you okay?” Phil asked, brushing the dust off of Dan’s jacket subconsciously.

“I’m fine,” Dan said, “just a bit bruised. Are you okay?”

“Not really, but I’ll manage,” Phil answered.

Dan figured as much.

“You two!” The security guard from earlier called, appearing from around the corner he had just run past with another security guard following close behind, “Don’t move!”

Dan and Phil, both confused as to why they were the ones being yelled, stayed put while the guards walked over to them. With everything that’s been happening lately, they definitely didn’t want to end up on one of these guys’ bad side.

“The Academy has strict rules against fighting,” the first guard said, “You’re both going to solitary until your Principal can review the security cameras.”

“What?” Dan said, shocked.

“But we didn’t do anything. Caine attacked us,” Phil said, earning an eye roll in return.

“We’ll see about that. What are your names?”

“Dan Howell.”

“Phil Lester.”

The second guard pulled out a small Tablet and started typing before showing the other guard whatever was on the screen. The first guard put his hand on his belt where the his taser was waiting while the other guard put away his tablet. The boys looked at each other nervously.

“Alright, both of you put your hands in the air and start walking that way,” the first guard said, pointing down the hallway they were in, “don’t try anything funny; we’re authorized to take down threats however necessary.”

The two of them followed the guards’ orders, walking down through the many turning hallways and stairs until they reached solitary. There was a wall with five cells lined up next to each other, and the guards had them walk down to the end of the wall with the last cell. The second guard unlocked and opened the door, gesturing for the two of them to walk in.

“We can’t both fit in there,” Dan said, regretting his words slightly when the guards glared at him.

“The other cells are full, so you’ll have to make do,” the second guard said, pushing Phil from behind into the cell, with Dan following soon after, “Just try not to kill each other. We don’t want to deal with another Jacob Carson incident.”

The guards closed the door and clicked the lock into place before leaving without further explanation. The boys, not really able to sit down at the same time in the cramped space due to their above average heights, stood as far apart as possible in the cell; even with clothing in between them and Phil’s ability being what it was, neither of them really wanted to risk too much touching.

“This sucks,” Phil said after an awkward amount of silence extended throughout the tiny cell.

Dan resisted the urge to say _no shit Sherlock._

“Yeah,” he said instead.

“Who’s Jacob Carson?” Phil asked when another short round of uncomfortable silence fell between them.

“He was a student here in the late 80’s,” he said, “Do you remember when you first got here and I said we hadn’t had a murder since before I was born?”

“I remember,” he said, “Along with all of the other terrifying things you kept telling me about when I first came here.”

“Sorry about that,” Dan said sincerely, “Well he was telekinetic and his training teacher had his try to move dead animals like rats and squirrels like puppets since it takes more precision and skill to make them move naturally. He got really good at it pretty fast, and when he got bored of it he decided to kill his roommate and move their body like a puppet. He used their corpse to kill two teachers and a student before he eventually got caught. He’s been in prison ever since.”

“That’s terrifying.”

“Agreed. I don’t know how they know about that though. Almost no one here knows about it other than the people who were students here when it happened.”

“You know about it.”

“Yes, but I have access to almost all of The Academy’s records and a lot of free time.”

“They were probably briefed about emergency’s in the past that they might have to deal with. Problems in here are different then problems that normal people deal with.”

“Maybe,” Dan said, sounding like his mind was somewhere else, “It gives me a bad feeling though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the chapter! I'm sorry if the story is feeling a bit slow at the moment but there's a lot of set up that has to be done for the next big arc in the story, so bare with me. Leave a comment if you'd like, I love reading what all of you think, and happy holidays! (Unless you don't celebrate anything around this time of year, then have a nice season!)  
> The next chapter will be up in two weeks on January 7th :)


	29. Chapter 29

“If you keep banging your head against the wall like that you’ll give yourself a concussion,” Phil commented, starting to get annoyed by the sound.

“What else am I going to do?” he said blankly, continuing to lightly knock the back of his head against the wall behind him.

“Not drive me insane,” Phil offered sarcastically.

Dan smiled a bit at the comment.

“These cells feel like they’ve gotten smaller over the years,” Dan said, filling the constantly hovering silence with the first thing to come to his mind.

“Have you been down here a lot?” Phil asked, curious.

“Just once, when I first came here. They weren’t really sure what to do with me or how close I could get to other people so I stayed down here for a few days.”

“That’s terrible,” Phil said, sounding less like her was sad for the other boy and more like he was angry at whoever was in charge back then.

“Well they didn’t have much of a choice,” Dan defended, “No one had ever had to deal with something like that before, and the safety of everyone else definitely outweighed my comfort. They needed to keep me somewhere that no one could get hurt, and this was their best option.”

“Surely they would have known that just being near you wouldn’t do any damage. I mean they had to bring you here, right? If no one… got hurt… then they could have put you somewhere else.”

“If no one died you mean,” he said, watching Phil drop his gaze, “You don’t need to sugar coat it; we both know what I do. And at that point in time they weren’t sure if it was a contact thing or if I could do it voluntarily. If I could just kill whoever I wanted if they were within a certain range, then lots of people would be in danger. Besides, I wasn’t down here for very long. They made the right decision.”

“You were a little kid.”

“A little kid who killed people.”

“That still doesn’t make it okay to−“

Someone knocked on the cell door, distracting both the boys momentarily.

“Are you two okay in there?” Louise asked from outside the door, fiddling with the sliding eye hole until it opened and she could look in.

“Louise!” Phil said, excited to finally see his friend again.

“We’re fine mostly,” Dan answered her, “Just cramped and a bit hungry.”

“I figured as much,” she said, passing them two candy bars through the eye slot, “Here, I brought you some snacks. I would let you out but you don’t really want those assholes thinking you broke out.”

“Thanks,” Dan said, taking the candy and passing one to Phil, “Do you know how long we’re going to be down here?”

“A few more hours. They’re taking their time reporting the fight to Dodie, but once she finds out she’ll be right down. When you tell her what happened she’ll let you both go.”

“It’s good to finally see you again,” Phil said, “We’ve missed you.”

“I missed you too,” she said, “I have to go before someone comes down here, but I’ll see you two tonight.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dodie gestured for the two boys to sit in the chairs in front of her desk. The two security guards from earlier were still lurking in the doorway, so Dodie shooed them off before starting their conversation.

“So, what happened in the hallways earlier?”

“Caine was being an asshole,” Dan said, wrinkling his nose.

“That’s nothing new, could you be more specific?

“He tripped me, I called him a prick, he shoved me, Phil told him to stop, he used his power on Phil, I kicked him on the back of the knees, and he tackled me. Then those Idiots that keep patrolling the school put us in solitary for fucking hours.”

“I’m going to have a talk with them about that,” She said, “And you know kicking him counts as fighting−“

“What did you expect me to do? He was attacking him−“

“Let me finish. Kicking him does count as fighting, but considering the circumstances, and the fact that you both just spent six hours in solitary, I’m not going to put in on your record. But please, don’t engage with him next time. We all know he’s an asshole but you don’t have to tell him that. And you,” she said, turning her attention to Phil, “Are you okay? I know that Caine can really hurt people, and being stuck down there in a cell for so long couldn’t possibly have helped.”

“I’m fine,” he answered.

“Are you sure? If I remember correctly you’re already pretty anxious normally.”

“I’m fine, really.”

“Alright, You two can go back to your room. And don’t be surprised if Tyler stops by later to check on you.”

Dan groaned, “I’m not a child; he doesn’t have to check on me every time something happens.”

“Be happy you have someone here to check on you constantly. Most of the students here would love to have someone to be there for them outside of visitation hours.”

Phil subconsciously nodded in agreement.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Phil looked over at the clock beside him blinking 2:47 in annoying red letters. He was unbelievably exhausted from the day he had just been through but he didn’t want to go to sleep alone in their room. It was strangely comforting to have another person sleeping a couple of feet away, and with how anxious he’s been feeling he definitely needed the extra comfort, but Dan was staying up as late as usual. He sat in bed staring at the book that he should be reading but wasn’t absorbing a word of while contemplating how much of a bad idea it would be to ask Dan to go to bed so that he could sleep, and when he looked up at the clock again to see 3:18 blinking at him, he gave up. After all, the worst he can do is laugh and say no, right?

Walking into the living room he saw Dan staring blankly at their tv with some reality show playing. When he noticed that Phil had entered the room he blinked a bit to focus and sat up.

“Are you okay? I thought you went to bed hours ago.”

“I did,” he said, “but I have trouble sleeping when I’m anxious, and it’s easier when there’s someone else in the room.”

“Oh. You should have told me earlier; I wouldn’t have kept you up this long. Let me brush my teeth and then I’ll come to bed.”

Phil was a bit shocked that that went so well. He went back to their room and, after Dan finished up in the bathroom, Dan followed suit, lying down in his own bed. Having the other boy in the room made him feel better instantly, and he was relieved to finally be able to fall asleep.

“Thank you,” he whispered in their dark and quiet bedroom.

“No problem. Sweet dreams,” Dan whispered back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been almost a year since I started this fic. That's outrageous. And we still haven't gotten to the romance stuff yet. Sorry about that guys. I promise it'll be coming up soon. Anyways, leave a comment if you's like, i love reading what all of you think. Seriously though, i hate the way i write and whenever i try to read back through this I want to punch myself in the face because I feel like someone else could write this so much better than me and my ideas are stupid or uninteresting, so hearing whatever thoughts or criticizms you have on this really encourages me to keep writing and trying to make the story enjoyable for all of you.Even comments that just say "nice" or ":)" absolutely make my day because someone thought what they just read was atleast kind of good. (Don't feel pressured to comment if you dont want to/ are to anxious to/ dont like the story cause I get that really it's fine) but yeah. Anyways, the next chapter will be up in two weeks on January 21st. Have a wonderful day:)


	30. Chapter 30

Over the next couple of weeks, the number of eerie security guards in the school seemed to nearly double. None of the students wanted to leave their rooms for anything besides classes, training, or meals lest they be harassed by intimidating men in black suits about what their intentions are. Dodie had been receiving constant questions about the excessive number of guards roaming through the school, but she didn’t have very many answers to give anyone. Although she’s technically the one in charge, The Academy is run by a government agency that have the ultimate say over how the school should be run. She’s asked about the ever-increasing security presence multiple times, but no one has offered her a clear answer. As far as the higher ups were concerned, her position meant barely more than nothing as far as information was concerned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hi boys,” Louise said, letting herself into their dorm, “I didn’t see you at lunch earlier.”

“We didn’t want to deal with all of the guards, so we stayed here,” Phil said, not fazed by Louise barging in unannounced anymore.

“They are pretty annoying,” she said, sitting down next to the two of them on their couch, “Two of them stopped me on my way over here.”

“Can’t you, like, predict where they’re going to be or something to avoid them?” Dan asked, paying more attention to the video game in front of him than the conversation.

“I can, but I’m focused on more important things at the moment. I don’t have the time to figure out where any of the guards will be at any given time.”

“When is all of this going to be over?” Phil asked.

“It’s going to be a while,” she said, “but don’t worry too much; I have a plan. I just need to figure out what all is going to happen and what isn’t.”

“You’re a pretty terrible psychic,” Dan commented passively.

“And you’re a pretty terrible killing machine but these are opinions we should keep to ourselves.”

“Harsh,” he commented, “or thanks? Being bad at killing things is a good thing, right?”

“You two are weird,” Phil commented.

“You’re one to talk,” Dan and Louise said in unison.

“That’s just creepy.”

The three of them laughed, and Dan was struck by how genuinely happy he felt around these two. Years ago, and even just a couple of months ago, he never would have believed that sometime in the future he would have two amazing friends that he could joke with, and just generally enjoy spending time with. Having friends feels so much better than he ever imagined it would, and he loves it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Attention students,” a loud voice boomed over the speakers, waking up both of the boys and causing them to sit up quickly in bed, “Effective today, all students will be required to wear uniforms whenever roaming the campus. Please report to you advisors before class to receive your uniforms. Again, effective today, all students will be required to wear uniforms whenever roaming the campus. Please report to you advisors before class to receive your uniforms.”

Dan groaned loudly, “The worst part about all of this stupid safety regime stuff they’ve been doing is _that goddamn old ass speaker system!_ ”

Phil rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at the clock beside his bed.

“It’s only half past five in the morning; why are they even announcing things this early?”

“Because they’re dicks,” Dan said, turning back over onto his stomach and burying his face into his pillow, “Go back to sleep.”

“Isn’t this sudden uniform thing a bit weird though, especially so early in the mor−”

“Don’t care. Go to sleep.”

“But−“

“ _Sleep._ ”

Phil rolled his eyes but let the topic drop; Dan is the farthest thing from a morning person Phil has ever seen, so any attempt at conversation would be useless at the moment. The announcement was making him feel uneasy though. School uniforms aren’t exactly the strangest thing on the planet, but The Academy isn’t exactly a regular school; a large portion of the students here don’t even take any classes outside of their training since they have already completed school, so the sudden implementation of uniforms feels a bit out of place. Coupled with the recent increase of security guards, the timing of the change feels sketchy.

 _You’re just being paranoid Phil,_ he thought to himself, _you always overthink at night._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“You’re late,” Tyler said when Dan finally walked into their training room.

“Water is wet.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky you didn’t get stopped on the way here for not having a uniform yet.”

“I got stopped twice actually,” he said sitting down, “Which is why I’m late. It’s not even twelve yet; they could at least give me enough time to get here before interrogating me about my clothes.”

“Everyone else came before class like they were supposed to,” Tyler said, taking a stack of clothes out of a box on his desk and setting them in front of Dan, “Go try them on. If they don’t fit, you’ll be stuck with them for a few days until we can get a different size.”

The uniform didn’t look anything like what Dan expected a school uniform to look like. The ensemble was all white, and looked kind of like an ugly track suit. The bottoms had elastic around the waist and the ankles, and the top had a more elastic around the wrists. The white made everything look very plain except for the black 000002 embroidered on the left sleeve. He went to the side bathroom in their training room to change.

“Why did they pick white?” he said when he came back in the room, “White is not my color.”

“Each of the levels have a different color,” Tyler said, “Five is white, four is yellow, three is blue, two is red, one is gray. From what Dodie told me teachers and faculty are going to be black but the orders are a bit backed up at the moment.”

“I hate it,” he commented, sitting back down in his seat from earlier.

“Just wait until you see the shoes.”

Dan groaned in annoyance, making Tyler laugh.

“At least you still have the gloves, which you should be taking off; we have training to do.”

Dan rolled his eyes but complied, taking his gloves off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First I want to say that all of you who commented on that last chapter were super sweet and it meant so much to me. I've been dealing with some mental health problems for the last week and a half because I've been having some problems with my insurance and I haven't been able to take my medications, so sorry that this chapter is pretty short. Hopefully I'll be getting that sorted out soon and I'll be able to write a longer chapter next time. Comment if you'd like, it always makes my day, and the next chapter will be out in two weeks on February 4th. Have a wonderful day!


	31. Chapter 31

Dan violently flung one of his shoes out of the bathroom and down the hall, groaning in frustration. He had been standing in front of the mirror in there for at least an hour now trying to fix his outfit, but nothing was helping. Wearing lots of layers and dark clothes is comfortable; it makes him blend into the background more and he prefers it that way. These school uniforms do the opposite. They show off his slightly pudgy stomach and stupidly long noodle body and the bright white just screams “hey look at me!” And the black gloves aren’t exactly the most inconspicuous article of clothing either now that everyone looks basically the same. He looks stupid, he sticks out like a sore thumb, and he absolutely hates it.

It’s the beginning of March, and with his graduation still being three month away and his birthday an unfortunate four, he still has classes that he has to go to. Classes were never very fun to begin with, but now that he’s suddenly dressed like a beam of light every day, he can feel everyone’s eyes on him constantly. He skipped most of his classes pretty much daily for the first couple of weeks after uniforms were instated, but after his teachers started calling Tyler because his grades were dropping almost irrecoverably low, (a fact that he doesn’t really give a flying fuck about since he would have dropped out years ago if it were allowed but Tyler unfortunately still cares) Tyler has threatened to confiscate all of his technology if he doesn’t at least show up to class.

He thought he was bluffing until he actually took his phone and tablet, and then changed the Wi-Fi password in their room. Poor Phil had to suffer through the punishment as well for the two days before Dan caved and went back to class. Looking at himself in this moment though, he was starting to think that it would be worth it to lose all of his tech for a few days. There’s no way he’s going out like this.

“Um… are you okay back there?” Phil’s voice asked quietly from somewhere on the other side of the dorm.

Dan paled a bit; he thought Phil would be in class at this hour.

“Fine,” he called back, but he could hear Phil walking down the hallway to him anyways.

Phil appeared in the bathroom doorway a few seconds later holding the shoes that had just been chucked out the door.

“Your shoe makes me think that you aren’t fine. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, just give me the shoe.”

Phil handed him the shoe. “It’s not nothing; talk to me.”

“It’s stupid,” he said, bending over to put the shoe on and complete the ugly outfit, “I’m late for class anyways.”

“If you’re already late it can’t hurt to wait a few more minutes. What’s wrong? Nothing is stupid if it matters enough to upset you.”

Dan huffed, deciding on if he wants to sound like an idiot in front of his cute friend before having to go through the hell that is biology class.

“The fucking uniforms make me look stupid and I hate it,” he mostly mumbled.

“I’m sorry. If it helps, I think you look great in white. Your eyes are really dark so they contrast nicely, and you aren’t super pale like I am so it doesn’t wash you out as much.”

Dan blushes a bit at the compliment.

“Why don’t you skip today; you seem pretty upset. My English class was cancelled so we can play Mario kart or something.”

“Shouldn’t you be telling me it doesn’t matter and I should just go to class?”

Phil shrugged, “It’s Tyler’s job to make you go to class. I’m here to make you happy.”

Dan smiled. “Go set up the game; I’m going to change into something less horrible.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_Dear Ms. Clark,_

_Effective immediately, all new enrollment in The Academy for Gifted Individuals is to be halted. No new students can be accepted into the school, and any students in the process of enrollment must have their information transferred to the Department for Gifted Citizens. Any and all graduations are to be postponed indefinitely, and no current students will be allowed to leave the school for any reason. Members of my department will be over in the next few business days to make sure that these new changes are being implemented properly. Please hold any questions or comments you may have on this matter until the department members arrive as we are currently overdrawn and do not have the man power to deal with such concerns at the moment._

_~John Gallows_

_Department for Gifted Citizens President._

Enrollment is being halted? Dodie can’t understand where this is coming from. The whole purpose of The Academy is so that Gifted people can have somewhere to learn how to control and manage their abilities. Its purpose is to keep potentially dangerous people out of the Public until they can control themselves, both for their own safety and for others. What do they plan on doing with all of the new students that haven’t enrolled yet? They can’t just put them anywhere. Sure, there are a handful of other smaller facilities for Gifted people across the country, but The Academy is by far the biggest and most successful institution in the country.

And postponing graduation indefinitely? They don’t want anyone new coming in, and they don’t want anyone already here going out. Something about this feels wrong, and she doesn’t like it. For as long as she’s worked here, there have always been waves of new leadership and such that end up being more or less tolerant of her people than the ones they replaced, but all of these changes lately have been overkill. The school has slowly been changing from a place of rehabilitation and learning to an overly expensive prison for Gifted people.

Everything is becoming eerily similar to what Louise had said would start happening a few months ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter is super short again. I still haven't been able to get my medication back yet. The story is about to move into a very dark and eventful arc, so i hope you're all ready for that. Comment if you'd like, the next chapter will be up in two weeks on February 18th, and i hope you all have a wonderful day!


	32. Chapter 32

It had been slightly over a month since any students had been allowed to join or graduate from the Academy, and people were starting to notice. New students were a near constant occurrence due to limited number of places for gifted people to end up aside from prison, so when the endless flow of new students went stagnant, even some of the newest of students were able to pick up on it. The few dozen people who were supposed to be graduating and sent back into normal society over the course of the month and had been told their stays were being extended also quickly noticed the near lockdown that the school was under, leading to even more talk and rumors going around.

“I don’t know what to do, Ty,” Dodie said, putting her head in her hands in frustration, “I can’t ignore orders but I can’t just keep everyone locked up here forever either. If Louise is right, then you know what comes after this.”

“If Louise is right then there isn’t anything we can do. The best option is to just try to hold thing together for as long as we can.”

She shook her head. “There are children here. We have students as young as six right now and we can’t do anything about it.”

“I know,” he said, “but there’s nothing we can do.”

~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~

Phil was browsing tumblr in their tiny kitchen while he waited on the noodles he was cooking when a new email notification popped up in the corner of his screen. He clicked on it and was a bit surprised to see that it was from the Academy; they had been predominately making announcement over the old speaker system instead of through emails as of late.

 _Beginning two weeks from today, The Academy for Gifted Individuals will be closing. All students and faculty will be moved to a new, safer facility in Nihil, Nevada by this date. Students should begin preparing to migrate immediately. Details regarding transportation schedules will be sent out shortly. Additionally, all academic classes are cancelled until all students are moved to the new facility, as well as all training courses for level 1,2, and 3 students._  
~John Gallows  
Department for Gifted Citizens President

Phil read through the message thrice, trying to make sense of what it was he was reading. They were closing the Academy? But why? Surely this couldn’t be a good thing.

“Fuck!” Dan yelled from down the hall in their bedroom.

Phil could hear Dan violently flinging himself off of his bed and half running down the hall to meet him in the kitchen with his phone in his hand.

“Did you read the email yet?” he asked, slightly out of breath from the sudden physical exertion.

“Since when do you run for anything,” Phil commented.

“Dick,” Dan said, elbowing him playfully in the side, “but did you read it yet?”

“Yeah,” he said, “Why would they close down the school; with the five million guards roaming around you would think this is the safest facility they could keep us in.”

“Right?” Dan said, “and two weeks is so sudden. There’s so many of us, and they’re going to move us all so quickly?”

“This is super sketchy.”

“I don’t like it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 _Level five students will begin transportation to the new facility in three days. Students must be at the front entrance with all of their belongings by 8:30 am or face disciplinary action. Please keep any belonging that you will need during transportation or immediately upon arrival in a small, carry on bag as additional belonging will be shipped separately and may take longer to arrive. No electronic devices will be allowed during transportation. Thank you for your cooperation._  
~John Gallows  
Department for Gifted Citizens President

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Dan! It’s 8:15, hurry up!” Phil shouted down the hallway, struggling to hold his suitcases.

“Don’t get your panties in a wad, I’m coming.”

Phil rolled his eyes.

Packing up their dorm had been a bit of a nightmare, mainly because Dan had collected a lot of stuff over the pretty much decade that he had been living here and he was rather reluctant to give up anything. Phil had gathered a few extra things here and there over the few months he had been at the Academy, but all of his belongings still managed to fit into the few suitcases that he brought when he first arrived.

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Dan said, dragging his many belongings with him out the door.

Phil smiled, thinking about how different Dan is now that they’re saying goodbye to their tiny dorm room than he was when he first moved in. Back then he never would have thought that they would be as close as they are now.

“We’re going to be late,” Phil commented as they trekked down the many flights of stairs to the main entrance.

“Stop complaining,” Dan retorted, “We have like three more minutes.”

Phil rolled his eyes, and they finally turned the last corner to where the rest of the lever 5’s were gathered with almost no time to spare. The guards blocking off the door glared at the angrily, but didn’t say anything. In front of the guards, a tall man with short, platinum blond hair in a gray suit clapped his hands together to get the groups’ attention.

“Alright everyone, we’re going to try and do this as orderly as possible. When we open the doors, we need you to put your bags against the building on the sidewalk; we are going to have people put them on a transfer truck that will be following us to the new facility. There’s going to be a line of buses outside, and the guards will divide you up between them. If you misbehave, the guards will have to intervene. Do we all understand?”

There was a series of weak affirmations, and the guards moved out of the way to open the doors.

When they exited the building, Dan froze for a moment and gasped.

“What is it?” Phil asked, worried.

“Everything looks so different,” he said in a slightly dreamy voice, “there weren’t nearly this many buildings the last time I saw this, and all of the trees are so much bigger, and the road has been repaved…” he trailed off.

“Hey,” one of the guards said, walking up to them, “get moving.”

“Sorry,” Phil apologized, pulling Dan along by his shirt sleeve.

The guards started dividing everyone into groups by the numbers on their uniforms, and Dan and Phil ended up sharing a seat in the back of the last bus across from a guard glaring at the rest of the students through dark sunglasses that seemed rather counterproductive considering the inside of the bus was rather dim. The boys placed their carry on bags between them in the seat, just in case, and Dan turned his attention to look out the tinted window.

You could tell that the boy hadn’t been out of the school since he was a child. The look of wonder on his face gave Phil butterflies in his stomach. Seeing how excited he was, Phil was almost distracted from the worry that had been blanketing them for the past few days since the announcement of the move.

Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally have my medication back, so hopefully these next chapters will be better than these last few. I hope you like the chapter, comment if you like, and the next chapter will be up March 4th. Have a good day!


	33. Chapter 33

After many long hours, the line of buses that had been carrying everyone passed through a huge, black gate and pulled up to a large set of buildings in the middle of the desert. They hadn’t seen any other buildings of general signs of life since the last town they passed, and that was almost an hour back.

The buses passed by what looked to be the main building, which was large and white like the Academy but only two stories high and definitely not as big as the old school, and came to a stop in a small parking lot around the back where smaller, less maintained buildings were all tightly packed side by side with a small barbed wire fence surrounding them. Unlike the larger building, these were a light brown almost beige color where the paint wasn’t flaking off of the cinderblocks that made up the exterior.

“Alright everyone,” one of the guards at the front of the bus barked, “Grab your things and get off in an orderly fashion.”

Dan and Phil grabbed their small bags of belongings and followed everyone down the aisles and off the bus into the small parking lot.

“These will be your new sleeping quarters,” The blonde man from before stated when everyone had exited the vehicles, gesturing to the line of cramped building behind him, “you will be divided up by your ID numbers, so find the building with your group on it.”

As numbers 000001 and 000002, it was rather east for Dan and Phil to find their building. It was the one on the far right with the numbers 1-28 on a sign posted above the entrance. Walking in, the boys immediately noticed how small and empty the building was. The inside had no windows with yellowish light bulbs hanging from the ceiling running down the middle of the room. On either side there were seven rows of small metal bunk beds with basic white sheets and labeled numbers painted onto the ends. At the far end of the room were two toilets with a stool holding a roll of toilet paper sitting between them.

“…Are they fucking with us right now,” Dan commented, looking over the small area.

“This can’t be right,” Phil replied.

Everyone else seemed shocked as well as everyone stood confused inside the doorway looking at the almost comically terrible room they were in.

“Don’t block the door!” one of the guards said, walking up behind everyone, “find your bunks and get ready for bed. Lights out in half an hour.”

Everyone erupted into a chorus of questions and statements, all directed at the guard in front of them, but he ignored them and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Unsure of what to do, everyone wandered around the room trying to find their beds. Beds 1 and 2 were at the very end near the two toilets. Phil wrinkled his nose at the location, but tossed his bag up onto the top bunk anyways. Everyone looked around at the rest of the people in the room as they all pulled out their night clothes. There was a clear sense of discomfort in the room.

“I can’t change with boys in the room,” Victoria, a girl who can control electric currents, said.

“Don’t be a pussy,” Caine, who had shockingly not been a disturbance since leaving the Academy, spoke up, “it’s not like you need to be embarrassed with a body like _that_.”

He looked her up and down, and Jonathan, a pyrokinetic who had nearly burned down his entire town before coming to the Academy six years ago, threw a rolled-up pair of socks at his head.

“She’s like 14, creep.”

“Throw something at me again, motherfucker, see what happens.”

“Oh, I’m so scared,” Jonathan said sarcastically, “the overcompensating shithead is scaring me so much. I’m trembling.”

“Both of you shut up,” Kenya, a teleporter who can move about forty feet instantaneously, said, “You’re going to get us all in trouble.”

Dan moved a bit closer to Phil so that they were almost touching.

“They don’t even keep us all in the same place during emergencies,” he whispered, “this is a recipe for disaster.”

As if on que, Jonathan and Kenya both doubled over, gipping their chests. A few people moved to help them, but the rest stayed where they were, either not wanting to get involved or not caring enough to do anything.

“Not so big and tough now are ya,” Caine taunted, stopping his assault a few seconds after.

Jonathan looked up in rage, and before anyone could react, he shot a ball of fire at Caine, setting the mattress and thin sheets ablaze and causing him to jump down off the bed, patting at his clothes to put the fire out.

“Oh, you’re gonna get it now bitch.”

Jonathan quickly shot out a line of flames in Caine’s direction before the emotion wave hit him, which Caine barely dodged. The overwhelming terror that was flooding his system didn’t stop his attack though, and random bursts of flame started shooting out in random directions.

“Shit,” Dan said, jumping out of the way of one shot that went flying in his direction.

Taking action, Kenya teleported over to where Jonathan was and moved the both of them to the other side of the building, removing him from Caine’s line of fire so he could gain enough of his senses to stop firing balls of fire around a room full of people.

“Are you both fucking crazy?” she yelled.

“He started it−“ Jonathan started, suddenly being cut off by the loud sound of the door slamming against the wall.

Six guards barged into the room, all holding various large guns aiming in every direction. One guard in the center fired three times, causing Caine, Jonathan, and Kenya to drop to the floor like rag dolls with large darts sticking out of their necks. Said guard then lowered their gun and, with the help of two others, started carrying the three out of the building.

“What are you doing?” Victoria asked, moving to see where the others were being taken to.

One of the remaining guards aimed his gun directly at her.

“Nobody move, unless you want to be punished too.”

Peering out the door, everyone watched as the three unconscious bodies were dragged out to the chain link fence around the area and, in what looked to be a very uncomfortable way, handcuffed to the fence by both arms. The three guards outside then left, having finished their jobs.

“Are you just going to leave them out there?” Someone closer to the front of the room asked, “It’s freezing outside.”

“This is what happens when you misbehave.” One guard answered, not leaving any room for debate.

He walked out, ignoring the flurry of questions and angry comments coming from everyone inside the building. Everyone was stunned, and after a few minutes of scared and confused chatter buzzing amongst everyone, the lights shut off, plunging the building into darkness. There were quiet sounds of shuffling as everyone, confused on what else to do, climbed into the rather uncomfortable beds.

“I don’t think this is a real school,” one small voice piped up from amongst the darkness.

“Really genius, are you just getting that now?” someone shot back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a bit later than I regularly upload (It's still Saturday though at least). I hope you like it. Comment if you'd like, and the next chapter will be out in two weeks on March 18th. Have a good day!  
> EDIT:So some things are happening and the next update is going to be a bit. I hope you guys understand and I'll try to have it out as soon as possible.  
> EDIT: So due to some things that are happening at the moment, the story is going to be on semi-hiatus. I'll try to update when I can, but there's going to be lots of long gaps between updates. Sorry about this; I'll try to get back to a regular schedule as soon as possible. (Probably around Autumn.)


End file.
